Activities 2 and 4

2) There are cases where evidence of the senses can be considered unreliable. In courtrooms today, many prosecutors bring to trial the victims of an attack, or witnesses to the attacks. Their accounts can be very different based on their perceptions. A victim may say that she saw the person that attacked her very clearly, but the defense might argue that she was traumatized and could not possibly be a reliable witness to her own crime. Her senses would not count as empirical evidence at all.

4) When I work on arguments, I always try to have accurate data that corresponds to key points in my arguments. I try to check my author's credibility's before I decided to use them as a source, but sometimes that isn't always the case.

1) It seems to me that writer's establishing ethos prepare a well organized argument. They state what they want to say in a clear, authoritative manner. Some of them point out the other sides of the arguments, which I think establishes ethos more. The use of quotes helps as well, providing a link to other information, and helping the writer look much more informed about what they are writing about. The writers with believable ethos didn't try to force their ideas, merely state them with conviction. The ones who argued forcefully were, I think, less successful at connecting with their audience.

2) I read an article online about rumors happening in the presidential race. I found it to be funny and quick witted. However, I'm not easily offended. I could see how taking a tone of sarcasm and disbelief towards an audience might harm an author's ethos appeal. The argument of the author was that the rumors aren't true, and pretty much anyone that believes them is an idiot. A little harsh for some people I believe.

6) Hey! Welcome to the Soup. I'm like you. Human. Unlike you, I'm being paid for these mistakes. So, hahaha...hahahah. - Joel McHale- The Soup.

Progress Report:
Purpose- persuade me (project manager) that you have a clear vision for project and have a handle on it.

To achieve this goal be specific on describing accomplishments.

Introduction:
Project observation
Summary statement about progress

Body sections
I Work completed
A
B contain types of work
II Work remaining.

Final section is a conclusion

Logical: within the realm of rhetoric deals with...
Premise: Any statement laid down, supposed or assumed before the argument begins.
As someone is building an argument, a premise is an unstated assumption on which the argument is arranged.
Probability: any statement that predicts something about human behavior.
Common interests that people share.

Inductive: Movement from specific cases to general principles.
Deductive: movement from general principles (class of items) to specific case. If premises (assumptions) are true, than the conclusion is true.
Enthymeme: Rhetorical argument based on assumptions that remain unstated.
If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit

If you stayed at a holiday Inn Express, you are qualified to be a doctor.

ARCS Activity 3

Elvis has left the building.
Elvis was here but has left.
Elvis has gone to another show.
Elvis has gone home.

10/21

Types of analyzing data:
Faigly's social perspective- Coding Data-Reading all the collected data, looking for patterns, themes, similarities, differences, to emerge.
Intertexutality Bazerman, Selzer
1- Direct Quotation
2-Indirect quotation
3-mentioning another docuent
4-commentary on another text
5-using recognizable text
"Tracing the Process" Paul Prior
1-Analyzing tets. Same between drafts, slightly revised.
2- Thinking aloud- differentiating the carious types of comments
Influence of workplace culture-editorial community- Klienman's four categories of revision comments.
analyzing genres- Linguistic features, use active verbs, presents concrete details.
Theoretical features, organizational features, chronological order.
speaking-writing connection
Theoretical theories

When I finally acquire the documents that I am to analyze, I think I want to read through them a few times first. I want to familiarize myself with her writing style. I also want to see if the document is a persuasive one, and if she convinces me to her side immediately or not. Then I want to move on to the words and structure of the overall papers. Do some words work more effectively than others? Does her organizational style seem to help her persuasion? I think I want to focus on actual content last. Because she might speak to so many people at one time, how does she address them? When she is speaking to different groups, does her writing styles change? Do her persuasive styles change?

Class notes 10/16

Ideology-a set of beliefs, values, ideas that shape how someone views the world. Example: Feminism, Conservatism/Liberalism, Humanism, Environmentalism.

Common Topic: Specific procedures/ sets of questions for generating arguments (heuristics)

Common place- taken for granted, unstated until they're challenged. Vague principles, myths, traditional values. Unstated premises that help to construct an ideology. Commonplaces are frequently resorted to in popular rhetoric. They orvide the terms within which American discourse works.
Example: Family
"Something people can take comfort it"

p130-Commonplaces
Faith in "god" guides the nation
patriotism
loyalty
national flags, anthems (symbols)
frontier
altruism
self-help
truth telling

Ideologic: Arguments that are made by stringing together commonplaces.

"Keep Austin Weird"
1- An "ideal" city is a "weird" city
2- A weird city has lots of different people, different shops, different, cultures ideas.
3-Austin is a weird city
4-Homegeneity is not weird.
5-Box store corporations promote homogeneity.
6- Government should promote what is unique in a city rather than what is "the same"

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people"
-Guns are weapons that take lives, due to bullets
-Guns are incapable of free-will/or action by themselves.
-Guns are only deadly when initiated by a person
- Guns are not a major contribuing factor to violence at large unless they are wielde by people
-Guns should not be the focus of legislation
- Violent offenders who use guns int he wrong way should be the focus of legislation
-

P153 #4

I would like to know if excelling at writing and humanities is more useful than excelling at math or science.

Conjecture:
Being able to express yourself through the written word is an important tool.
Being able to solve problems logically is a useful concept to have.


Degree:
Writing is more important than math or science because of the need to clearly express one's self. This comes from knowing how to write well.
Being better at math and science helps you think more logically and critically about the world around you, which is an important skill in everyday life.
Each is a good skill to have and one is not better than the other.
Neither skill is that important to daily life.

Possibility:
Knowing more about each might help in everyday life, regardless if you are good at them.
People are required in schools to be exposed to both topics, so even a little bit of knowledge from each division is helpful.

Common Topics and Places

Common Topics: Set of questions that we can ask and answer in order to begin generating arguments on any topic/in any situation.

Conjecture: What exists? What doesn't?

Degree: goodness, justness, honor, expediency.

Possibility: What is possible/impossible in past. present, future.

Commonplaces: short phrases that capture an idea. "strengthening families"

Freewriting and notes

3 types of Interviews:
Semi-structured interview-purpose: gaining insight into writer's motivations, values, background, approach to the writing process. (What do you do when you don't understand the instructions of an assignment)
Stimulated elicitation- Purpose of both: gaining insight on writer's thinking, problem solving strategies, learning about writer's decision making.
Discourse Based Interview

*Keep emphasis on the positive
*Interview is gathering data. Analysis is afterwords.

Freewrite:
For my project, I am trying to focus on professional writing in a hospital or medical setting. Medical writing interests me very much. I was trying to do my project on one of the doctors, but I was routed to someone who works more in the educational and management part of the hospital. But, I believe this person can actually help me more than studying a doctor.
I mainly want to focus some of my questions on how does working in a professional setting vs working at home help or hinder the writing that is done. When writing for medical educational purposes, what is important to include or explain, especially to those who aren't that familiar with medical language? Hopefully my project will help me understand more about medical writing, but also what it is like to write professionally in a business orientated field that concerns itself with so many people with different backgrounds and cultures.
My contact hasn't yet discussed with me what writing she'll be sharing with me. Hopefully she will be getting back to me soon about it. As for visiting and observing her, while I may only get to observe her in one office, more than likely her home. I'm hoping to go visit her office at work as well. I want to be familiar with each place, even if I can't see her in both settings. But, visiting her office at the hospital might give me a clearer idea of what she sees and hears everyday while she is working. It should give me a view of her associates as well, and perhaps some of the interactions that go on around her.
As I mentioned before, after this project is complete I will hopefully have a better view on medical and business writing and maybe even editing as well. I'll be able to understand the pros and cons of working in a business setting vs working from home to complete projects on time. Depending on what I learn, this may influence my career path after I complete school.
As for larger implications, this project may give whomever reads it a little insight into how a person working in the medical field educates and informs those around the hospital and those who visit it.

The week

The idea of intertextuality really interested me this week. I feel like this idea will be helpful, not only for this classes research project, but for any others that I may come across. Although I had a very general idea of it to begin with, Tuesday's class clarified it even more. I think that the idea of intertexuality, and understanding it, will be useful when incorporating ideas into the ethnographic report.

Class Notes

What kinds of details does she provide in the Setting
Located in Washington DC
GAO is a "midsized" organization
1200 written reports
Professional staff "well educated"
Employs about 5000, 14 regional, 2 overseas
Headquarters-divided into four program and three technical divisions
Basic work unit (assignment team) includes primary writer and 2 levels of supervisors

Location
Size: # of employees, Offices (concentration in one geographical area)
Staff education: Level of education, types of subjects
Structure of working teams: personal and each one's role.
Decisions about staffing/ structure of teams
Number and types of reports produced

Why provide those types of details? Why does she want readers to know about these types of info.
Mentioning the location can provide more insight into the company's involvement with outside affairs. The company is located in Washington DC. To me as a reader, this means that they are a company that is heavily involved with our government in someway. This is backed up by later statements that the company helps Congress.
Mentioning the size of the company helps visualize the company. This company is important enough to have several offices in different locations. This company must be important.
Mentioning the number of reports and the type of reports help characterize the company as hard working and versatile. The author mentions that the topics are "wide-ranging" and were created by people who hold well educated advanced degrees.

Intertextuality-How a text pulls in voices from other texts
The writer the agency; writer controls the intertexual references
Intertexual references do important rhetorical work

Slate:
From Harold and Kumar: They pick a clip that explains the movie in about 15 seconds
Pulled the clip out to point out that there is no plot.
Used "Josh" to play up the dramatics. Choosing to use that makes it seem he was making fun of the serious criticism
Referring to them, 2 great American icons.

Direct Question
Indirect Question
Mentioning a person/idea
Comment/evaluation of an idea or text
Referring to general ideas of a subject/person

Activity #3

Throughout my time as an English major, I have had to complete several assignments that tie into what 301 explores in a whole. The first one that comes to mind is a research paper I had to do for my 102 class. It was a standard research paper with a twist. We had to analyze our sources in depth. We had to look into their background, find out why they were writing the article, and comment on their stands. Were they credible? Could we trust them to provide accurate information? Was a piece opinion or fact?
I had to write my paper based on these sources, so if they weren't accurate, my paper could hardly be accurate. That assignment really opened my eyes to analyzing source material. I compare 301 to it, because we are analyzing writers and their processes. Though, in 301 we go about it a different way. Also, 301 is very much more in depth to the topic of analyzing.

Observations Continued

Types of Details
A. Roles, how each performed the roles.
>Body language and spatial relationships.
B. Specific embodied activity-Typing, silently rereading
>Level of comfort: stumbling over words; pace of activity; posture; amount or discussion
C. Speech (Types/Topics; sequence; tone; volume)
D. "Other activities"

3 kinds of notes:
Observational notes- the notes you take during an observation.
Theoretical notes- Forming conclusions to observations
Metheodological-notes to yourself as you're observing. Research to follow up, questions to ask after the fact.

Video notes:
Bringing a diagram
Collaborating with each other. One trying to show the other what he means with his hands. Gesturing to the wall, the paper.
Cold, heavier clothes.
Brought items, like ladder and paper.
Discussing colors, friendly.
The one man is very specific about colors. Gesturing "all around"

10/21 additions
Triangulation: As you analyze data from one source, consider, analyze data you've collecte from another source
-does it confirm, challenge, complete your initial analysis?

Analysis:
A) hierachical relationship
shapes decisions-making

Supporting Data:
A) tak between the two-Seen gets final say
observe body language-nick looks away, Seen pokes the paper, talks over nick.

Collaborative Writing

2. What are you learning in the PWE course you are currently taking? How would you describe your experiences in this course?

In English 301 Writing Theory and Practice, we are currently learning how to analyze the writing of people in the PWE profession. We start by learning their jobs and the different tasks they do, then we observe their work and processes. We're also going to learn interviewing processes and how to observe as well as the ethics of each.
In the class, we read and discussed many texts that discuss different perspectives which will be helpful when we are putting together our final project. We've done activities in class that have helped us learn how to analyze different writer's texts.

Observational writing
*Discussed what the student should know about PWE
-classes-skills
-jobs that you can use the major
Listed off some of the classes and requirements.
Talked out what they were going to say before they wrote and formatted it.
Brainstorming aloud.
Organized their information in a list rather than in paragraph form.
Jesse typed, Mallory provided a lot of good ideas that were added as he wrote.
Formatted as a letter, used their own experiences in the field of PWE to construct it.
Mallory was leaning in to the computer. Both were very focused on what they were writing.
Reread over their work to make sure they had included everything they wanted, added a few more things when they were going over it.

Freewriting
I really observed what the two were saying at the beginning. I focused on the ideas they were coming up with. After a few minutes, I realized I needed to focus on how they were sitting, and how they were formatting their work. It was hard to keep concentration on just observing the two of them when I could hear others around me. I switched my focus several time on their formatting, writing, position to each other, and what exactly they were writing.
I think that if I had been right behind them, I might have observed a little more. I could have saw exactly what was going onto their page and the gestures they were making towards each other. But I think that would have interrupted them if I was that close. I felt that where I was sitting was a fairly good spot and I was not intrusive to their brainstorming.
I tried to make sure that they didn't really notice me staring at them, I just jotted down a few things that really stood out to me.

Observation

Photograph
Observations
Day time, well lit. large windows

Inferences
Perhaps the group felt it would have the most energy/attention during the day.

Questions
Why did the group choose to do their collaboration during the daytime?

Inferences
Comfortable seating, arranged in semi circular arrangement. (Not sure if group moved the seats or if they were already arranged this way)

Questions
Why did the group choose to work in teh arrangement of seats.

Observation
Two with laptops, one with notebook, person with book.

Inferences
People assigned to do diffrent tasks.

Questions
What's the division of labor, is one person leading the others? Are all three equal. What are they using the laptop for?

Observations
Book bags on the floor, people wearing jeans and flip flops. People are looking at the board, person at the board making eye contact.

Class Discussion: Stasis Theory

A Clarifies a rhetor's understanding of an issue before combining an argument.
-Audience opinions, assumptions, values
-Areas where more research can be done
-Possible proofs to support argument
-Effective arrangements of these proofs.

First article: Murphy
Topic: Voting/Political Participation
Question: Should young adults participate in the political process? (voting)
Theoretical: Abstract ideas- Should youth participate in politics? Is voting the way to decide a community's direction?
Practical: Action/specific activities-Should youth vote in the 2008 election

What is IT?
Conjecture: Is there an act to be considered?
a"Purity" of the democratic process
b Lack of political participation
Questions: Is there a reason young people don't participate? What proof do we have young people don't vote? How can it be changed? Are political parties targeting them? Why do political parties think the young people are important? What kind of ways are they participating in and what are they not doing? What would get them interested and excited about participating?

Definition: What kind of thing is it/ What parts make it up?
Questions: What kind of thing or event is it? To what larger class of things does it belong? What are its parts? How are they related? What kind of thing is "VOTING"? Is voting a luxury, a duty, a right, a privilege, or a responsibility, obligation?
What is "POLITICAL PARTICIPATION"? What are its parts?

Quality: Simple- Is it a good or bad thing? Should it be sought or avoided? Comparative- Is it more desirable than alternatives? Or less desirable? Is it more or less right than something else? Is it more base than something else?
Is it right to vote without knowing the issues and candidates vs. note voting at all? Is it honorable to vote for a candidate whose ideas you support but you know isn't going to win? Is it more base to pay attention to the political process when there's so much negativity or is it more base to tune out it all. Is it a good thing to participate in the political process? Is it better for the youth to participate in the process or should the experienced vote?

Stasis Theory Activity 3

For activity 3, I checked the opinion section of the DA for today for articles. I came across one about Sarah Palin. The piece opens with the line that choosing Sarah Palin for a running mate was the best thing McCain could have done to save his campaign. The article goes on to suggest the ways that Palin will help bring new life to a campaign that people have become disillusioned with. The opinion touches on many of Palin's qualities, all of them good.
I don't believe there is any conjecture in this piece. The article discusses the ways that Palin is the solution to all of these problems. There is no stasis, because no other side is presented. The article only focuses on the good that Palin will bring to the campaign. The author does not include the other side of the argument, probably because that would not agree with the opinion. Should a person stand up to argue against this article, I'm sure there would be plenty for them to choose to refute.

Methods to understand a writer's decisions

Texts:

-Peer Reviews

-Postwrites

-Rhetorical Analysis

-Memo

-Instructor comments on freewrites and rough draft 

Interviews:

-Asking how comments were interpreted and changes were made

Stimulated Elicitation Interviewing "Props"

Discourse based interview

Observations:

Watch the person revising or even drafting. 

Peer reviews. 

Free write on Research methods:

What I'm sure about so far is how to go about researching several documents from one writer. I am now more familiar with what to look for to really understand how a writer creates and revises. I don't really have any questions. I have more of a sense of unease that whomever I choose to research will have documents that I won't be able to research well. So, I can't say I'm absolutely comfortable with it yet. But I have a feeling that as the semester goes on, I'll start to become more accustomed to it. 

Week in Review

I'd have to say, looking back over the week, that I understood the packet that we were analyzing. As a class, we were trying to analyze how the writer came to write, his prompting, and methods. We did this rather than analyze his actual writing, which I thought was interesting. The instructions were a little confusing at first, but by Thursday, I had a better understanding of what we were doing. I do understand how this is going to help us analyze our subject's documents for the final project, although I am a little afraid I may not analyze correctly. I am beginning to get a little worried about our project and all the details of it. Hopefully, that will be explained and cleared up this week.

Exploratory Essay

When I first sat down to try to write the essay, nothing popped into my head. No questions came to mind at all, which was strange as I have a lot of questions that I could have asked. So I tried very hard to think of the fields that I wanted to perhaps pursue. What did these people do? How did they do it? That started to spark more in depth questions. So instead of sitting down at my computer, I grabbed a notebook and started to write down my questions into separate columns. The columns were dedicated to the questions about specific fields, as well as more general questions that could pertain to all fields.
After this was done, I started to go through my columns, checking the questions that I felt were the ones I was most curious about. Some of these questions I felt were more relevant to my immediate interests. I also felt they might be good questions to include in our research paper. But, they were questions I didn't know much about, so I generalized about them as much as I could. Doing this also generated even more questions.
I chose questions mostly on what I was interested in. Since I'm mostly interesting in editing and medical writing, I started with those questions. I truly don't know much about either of these positions, so I was really just posing questions with no answers. I tried to provide what I thought these jobs included, but I couldn't be sure about them. But, I asked questions that I hoped would help me later in the semester, as well as questions I could go back to for my own information later.
My next step was to ask a general question. I felt this was important because it applied more to the pros and cons of a job situation. I wanted to know what were the differences between working for a company of some sorts and freelance writing. What sort of skills does each position need? What are the downfalls? These are some of the questions I wanted to include.
After I had my questions picked out, I needed to actually write it all down into a three page paper. This worried me a little bit. I wasn't sure if I had three pages worth to write about. But, after I started, the questions turned into more questions and I had three pages.
The paper, instead of making me glad it was done, inspired me a little bit. I realized I wanted to know the answers to all my questions, even the ones I didn't choose to write on. Hopefully later on in the semester, I'll find out more about the answers to my questions.

Rhetorical Activities 1 and 4

1) Since I didn't have any magazines in my room, I instead decided to look up an article I had read on MSN a few days ago. The article concerned itself with vaccines and the various reasons why parents choose not to allow their children to be vaccinated. The article draws on kairos due to a survey take 2 years ago, and the rising number of children who aren't being vaccinated due to personal or religious beliefs. But there are also the group of children that due to various reasons, cannot be vaccinated because of a health issue. And because there are children out there that were not vaccinated due to other reasons not related to health, these children are very susceptible to disease. The writer established urgency early on by talking about the possibility of epidemics of very contagious diseases happening again because a certain amount of children were not vaccinated.
Also on the first page of MSN was an article on corn syrup. The short article linked the syrup to the rising obesity in America. The writer uses two sides of the argument. One is that eating more calories than you burn off in a day is the problem with the rising weight. Two is that corn syrup makes the body feel like it is still hungry and thus people consume even more because they still feel hunger pangs.

4) Vaccinations are an important part of the health of young children. While not only preventing the acquisition of life threatening diseases, these vaccines also help to keep the other members of the population safe and healthy. There are some children who can not receive vaccinations due to health issues. Therefore, it should be up to the rest of the community to look into vaccines and consider getting them for their children. Yes, there are faith based reasons as well as personal reasons for choosing not to receive vaccines. But, there are other factors involved in the decision besides the most important factor; the health and well being of your child. There is your health to consider, and the health of those around you.

The week

What is one thing you learned this week from class and what is one thing that you still are not sure about?

-I think I came to understand a bit more about rhetoric and what is means to have a rhetorical argument. I did not really understand the idea before this week, and now I feel that I have a better grasp on the concept. Not to say that I'm still a little confused by it, because I feel like it is a big concept to try to take on, but I do feel that I have widened my knowledge of it. 

-I think that I still do not have a complete grasp on social discourse vs audience that we discussed today. It's a confusing topic for me, but hopefully I'll be able to come to understand it a bit better. 

Social Perspective questions

A.

1. The textual perspective they assume that it's static, that there is a formula for producing the genre.

-Study the text to identify how the text could be shortened or simplified.

2. The individual perspective is more interested in the writing process rather then the formula.

-They assume that the text is an individual creation. 

3. The social perspective assumes that the writer is trying to appeal to an audience to accomplish something. 

-Thinking about the purpose for the document, whose going to be reading it, what you want them to do about it. 

-The genre was created by people over time. They saw a certain purpose they needed to achieve, so certain documents came into being. 

A document in the workplace

In order to communicate effectively in a workplace, a writer needs to be able to participate in the continuous process of communication. A writer needs to know how to effectively translate language, making it easier for others to understand and learn from. A writer trying to explain a complicated idea, such as something in the medical or engineering field, they can not expect that their entire audience will be able to understand the terms. So a writer must be able to explain complicated ideas in a way that will be easier to understand.
The writer also needs to take into account how much an audience may or may not know about their subject beforehand, so that they can accurately inform their readers. This goes along with the previous idea. If a writer assumes that their audience knows certain information and does not include it, it can make their communication of a process unfinished. But, if a writer is accomplished at this, they can pass the information on to their readers, who can in turn pass the information on to others; a continuous process.

Rhetoric Activities 2 and 4

2) Arguments happen every day, in a lot of different situations. However, like Jon Stewart commented, some arguments can't really be considered proper arguments according to rhetoric. For instance, the book mentioned the use of facts and opinions. Ancient rhetoricians taught that op ions developed because a whole community, not just a single person. So they should be valid to an argument as well. Because I could not think of an argument I had heard lately in the news, I settled on one I heard between two of my friends.
Both of the girls were discussing the Olympics. When the topic of Michael Phelps, the swimmer who won 8 gold medals, came up, the argument started. Friend A made her point. While she felt that Phelps was an excellent swimmer and that he represented the United States well in Beijing, she had heard from her brother, who had heard Phelps talk, that Phelps was a very arrogant person. Friend B was instantly fired up. She argued that Phelps was the best athlete at the Olympics and that he wasn't arrogant at all. How could he possibly be? He was the best swimmer there. This is an example of what I feel is not a valid argument. While friend A made a point and had second hand evidence, friend B could provide none. She could only put forth her view on the fact that she believed she was right.
A theatrical argument is one that does not provide the time for everyone to speak. Like the example in the book states, a rhetorically engaged argument does not have people simply shouting over one another or interrupting each other to get the arguments out. A rhetorically engaged argument is not one that can be won, like in the case of a theatrical argument.

4) In my community, persuasion comes mostly from the television. There isn't a lot of things around my community that influences us all on a daily basis besides TV. I think that a lot of my friends are heavily influenced by what they watch, and it shows on thier day to day lives. From commercials, to the news, even to the show themselves, I think that thier influence can be found. The news espeically influences. I read MSN news everyday and am influenced by it. I read information about diffrent food items, as an example, and then decide that I won't eat it anymore, or that I should eat it.
As for arguments here is a random list of them as I found them. I don't agree or disagree with them, I simply found them interesting.
-Children shouldn't be allowed to read Harry Potter because it introduces themes such as human sacrafice, the occult and a hunger for power.
-Not vaccinating your child causes serious health risks. Risks that outweigh the risks of actually getting the vaccinations.
-Second hand smoke provides as many health dangers as actually smoking.

Selzer questions

1) Why did Jack Selzer want to study the composing processes of an engineer?
Jack Selzer wanted to investigate the ways the scientists and engineers actually went through the processes of writing and how they planned, arranged and drafted their writing. At the time, many study had been conducted on people who actually professionally wrote such as authors or jounalists, as well as students in academic settings. He also conducted his research for the purpose of helping teach technical writing to students entering the fields of engineering or science.

2) What did you find interesting/unique/suprising about his answer to this question? How did he convince you he was correct/on target?
It suprised me that Selzer discovered that Nelson composed a lot of his own work and melded it with other documents. But when it came time to revise, there was barely any. While most writers take a lot of time to revise whole portions of thier own work, Nelson did not revise his words. He simply made changes to the grammer. Selzer says he never saw Nelson "add material or reorganize it when he was revising" (184).
Selzer mentions that he observes Nelson throughout his writing process. Selzer also observed Nelson's work enviorment. Selzer asked Nelson to respond to questions about his writing before and after he completed it. He did not ask Nelson to compse aloud. Selzer also looked over Nelson's documents that he completed.

Blog 1: Professional Writers

The field of professional writing appears to be a very flexible job description. There are some people who choose to work for just one company, like an editor to a publishing company such as Penguin Books. Then there are the freelance writers, who can be contracted to write for various reasons such as articles for magazines, or screenplays.
Technical writers are writers that take complicated instructions or language and transform in to into easier reading for the public. The directions on the back of that PopTart? Probably written by a technical writer. They can work for companies, but can also be freelance and work from home.
Editors review and edit the work of other writers before publication can take place. In a publishing company, an editor may review the ideas with the author, as well as review their grammar. Then there are copy editors that do basically the same thing, but only in a news setting. A copy editor will review the material of a reporter instead of another author. The job of an editor requires the person to be creative and actively interested in the field of writing, as they may be called upon to bring forth ideas of their own.
Medical writers break down complicated medical terms into language that many people not familiar with the Field can understand. The American Medical Writer's Association has nearly 5,000 members that work to improve the communication of medical information. The AMWA has many workshops and conferences for its members to join together and improve. There is also a directory for the members that are freelance writers. Some medical writers can write information in text books and some choose to work on web sites like KidsHealth.org.