Discourse Analysis Paper

What I learned from reading in English 102 so far!!

            First off, I would like to explain a little on how Writing Analytically and Wysocki influenced my writing in English 102 so far. Both of these reading were new to me and they have allowed me to broaden my view on how my writing should be like and what I can to do make them better and more interesting. I think that Writing Analytically has helped me the most, as I read through it; it helped me gain more knowledge about work cited pages/MLA formatting and how they should be done. I think that it has helped me in a few other ways also, and allowed me to improve my writing to make it flow better and keep people interested.  After reading Wysocki, I thought that it really allowed me to gain more knowledge about how important it is to make your writing “pop out” and gain people’s attention write away, so that you keep them interested in your writing. I also thought that it did a good job at telling us how we should write towards different audiences and how if we don’t write in the correct manner towards a specific audience, it is easy for us to lose our readers in our writing. To go along with that I thought that it was also trying to emphasise that writing clearly and allowing our paper to “flow” is a very important part in everyone’s writing and it has allowed me to become better at it. I think that everyone can learn how to improve on their writing and if you put a little effort into your work you will be able to excel!

Discourse Analysis Paper

As I researched during this class, I have come upon a question, that I believe is very logical and interesting, and that pertains directly with the Discovery Center and what they do. My question is “how do science experiments allow students to learn?”  As I have gathered information, and wrote other discourse analysis throughout the last few weeks I have tried to lead my topics into something that will help narrow out my question and will eventually allow me to come to an answer about my topic. So, I think that the goal of this paper is to help narrow down my question and to allow myself to come upon a good answer for it. But, I think that it is very important for me to gain more knowledge about how experiments really do help others learn, especially as I do my service work for the Discovery Center.

Source 1

Tenor: In this reading, the author’s goal in writing this paper is to show/explain the effects hands-on-learning has on people and why it is a very important tool that one gains at an early age. The author is targeting other students or other young audiences, to speak/explain her thoughts on why hands-on-learning is such an effective tool to many and is something that allow people to keep interested in their education, but still allow them to gain more knowledge about a certain topic area. In the author’s writing, she provides beneficial information about how people begin using hands-on-learning at an early age and that this type of learning sticks with many of them all throughout their education and allows them to gain knowledge in a way that is fun/interesting for them, but is still educational. She also shows that you are able to learn outside the “traditional” style of textbook and lecturing.

Tone: I think that as I read Donna Thacker’s article on hands-on-learning, she really stated the point that hands-on-learning is a key to many young people’s learning style and she really made sure that you understood her point-of-view on how she thought these practices could keep students more interested in what they were learning and would make it more fun for them, so they would put more effort into trying to learn. I believe that Donna Thacker had the complaint of “traditional” teaching styles is boring for most students and that if you allow a hands-on style of learning in your classroom you will get a better response to all that you teach and you will allow your students to gain more knowledge about the specific topics. After Thacker explained her thoughts on the ways hands-on-learning is more educational, she emphasizes that it is extremely important for teachers to use methods of teaching that will keep their audience entertained and interested, but still has an educational part to it.

Theme: I think that the main idea of this article was that hands-on-learning is a fun way of learning that keeps students interested in whatever it is they are learning about, and that it is important for teachers to stress the point that by using this tactic in their classrooms, it may allow their students success rates to improve, because it is a very entertaining way of education that keeps students involved.

                                                                       Source 2            

Tenor: The author’s goal in writing this paper is to show how teachers/professors can make learning in the classroom more effective for their students. In this article the author is targeting teachers and maybe even students, by giving his thoughts and strategies that will help improve a students learning process in the classroom. He provides lots of beneficial information on how teachers can interact with their students in the classroom in order to create a healthy/educational environment for their students to be in, that will allow them to gain more knowledge in the classroom. The author proposes that one-on-one interaction between a student and a teacher in the classroom is very important for students in order for them to become comfortable in the environment they are in and helps them gain more knowledge about certain topics that are being talked about in a classroom environment. I think that Nellie is really trying to emphasize that keeping students comfortable in their classroom can really improve a students learning style.

Tone: I think that when reading Nellie Deutsch’s article, he is trying to state that keeping a safe work environment for students, and interacting with them whenever they need to help create a better learning environment for all those who are involved. Deutsch is sort of upset with the fact that many students aren’t able to learn properly in their classrooms, simply because they don’t feel like they can be open with their instructors and are not able to have an open mind a learn like they should be. After explaining this complaint, Nellie tries to encourage others that cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence will help assure student motivation and engagement in the learning process. Gaining trust among their instructors/peers helps ensure students that they can discuss their difficulties with the learning process in the classroom to help provide an excellent framework for an effective learning environment.

Theme: I think that what I got out of this article was that creating a comfortable learning environment for students, and greatly enhance a student’s ability to learn in the classroom and will allow them to gain a better education. Also having lots of student interaction in the classroom with both their instructors and other peers will allow students to gain confidence and will help them become more educated.

            I think that all of the sources I used throughout my research, will eventually help me gather enough information about my research question to eventually be able to answer it. This all allowed me to gain a better perspective about other people’s opinions/views on this research topic, which allowed me to gain a better perspective about how I can answer my question.

Works Cited

Thacker, Donna. “What impact does hands-on-learning have on kids?” eHow Contributor (NA). Sunday. 27 February. 2011.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5815129_impact-hands_on-learning-kids_.html

Deutsch, Nellie. “What makes learning effective?” Garrison, D.R. & Vaughn, N.D. (2008) Blended learning in higher education. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Sunday. 27 February. 2011.

http://connecting-online.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-makes-learning-effective-cck08-and.html