Tag Archive for: dept-none-3

Last week was spent getting the greenhouse on the CI campus set up for germination trials. Part of my capstone focuses on the germination of Santa Cruz Island Bush Mallow (Malocothamnus fasciculatus), which is an endangered species and also an island endemic. This species was included in my native seed mix, so by conducting germination trials in the greenhouse, I will be able to observe the viability of the seeds and also measure the percentage of success based on the number of seeds planted and the number of seedlings which germinate.

The middle of Water Canyon has meander frequencies within the watershed at this location. The meandering of the stream is meant to slow the velocity of the water. The stream is at its widest of widths during these meanders, producing floodplains and more gradual of slopes to the terraces. This allows for different vegetation types to grow these areas. With a smaller slope, shrubs and trees are on the terraces intermingled with annual grasses. The reduced slopes and wider floodplains allow for more forb species to grow in the area. The transect had a species richness of 10 species and no bare ground throughout the entire transect. The species recorded were annual grasses, spreading grasses (Bermuda or Salt Grass), Daucus pusillus, Marsh Baccarus, Thistle, and other unknown forbs, Cattails, Toyon, Sagebrush, and Coyote Bush. The average density, the number of species per sample, was 1.348. The average height for Coyote Bush was 122 centimeters, Cattails was 212 centimeters, perennial grasses were 22 centimeters, annual grasses were 38 centimeters, Daucus pusillus was 33 centimeters, Marsh Baccarus was 135 centimeters, and Sagebrush was 126 centimeters, Thistle was 31 centimeters, Toyon was 55 centimeters, and unknown forbs were 30 centimeters throughout the entire transect.

After reading Shelly Reid’s “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Students”, I have chosen five of the metaphors in Reid’s essay that resonated with myself.

The first metaphor I chose was called A Thousand Rules And Three Principles. This metaphor explains that when writing an essay or a research paper as a college student, writing is made harder than it has when trying to follow too many rules for writing. Grammar, thesis’s, persuasiveness, and incorporating sources are all categories in which many rules apply when writing. I can relate because writing has always been my least favorite thing to do coming into college and it seems like a chore instead of a living process that connects people and moves the world forward. “1. Write about what you know about, are curious about, are passionate about (or what you can find a way to be curious about or interested in). 2. Show, don’t just tell. 3. Adapt to the audience and purpose you’re writing for.” (Reid 4). These three principles let us, as college students, write rhetorically and pay attention to the needs of the author and the needs of the reader, rather than the needs of the professor.

The second metaphor I chose was called The Little Green Ball And Some People: Doing Details Right. This metaphor explains that not every reader reads like you do. And what I mean by this is that when writing a paper, a person knows exactly what they are writing about no matter how vague it can be. Now when a reader reads your paper, some questions they ask themselves sometimes is “Huhh?” or “Wha-a-a?”. This means that you as a writer needs to explain things in such detail that the reader does not have to ask themselves questions about the text. I can relate because in class when we peer review essays in groups, sometimes the person who is reading my essay asks about what this sentence means or what this paragraph infers. This is a sign that I need to incorporate more facts, statistics, comparisons, sensory description examples, expert testimony, and personal experience into my essays and research papers I write. What I took from this article is that a reader can not read the writers mind because it is simply impossible, so a writer should consider being specific in the details that are shared.

The third metaphor I chose was called Lost Money And Thank You Notes: What’s In An Audience. This metaphor explains that as a writer, you have to consider who your audience is. And what I mean by this is as writer has different writing styles depending on who the audience is. The metaphor also explains that you have to identify your primary audience and your secondary audience.  Primary audiences are those who receive the communication directly and are also known as the target audience and secondary audiences include anyone who may indirectly receive a copy of the communication. These include anyone who will receive a copy, need to approve, will hear about, or be affected by your message. A secondary audience is something that I have learned and should take into consideration. When I get a writing assignment from a professor, in my mind I think that my professor is the only person that I am writing to and I feel that I should think about other audiences when I write.

The fourth metaphor I chose was called Pink Houses & Choruses: Keeping The Reader With You. This metaphor explains that when writing, you need to ensure your target audience and put down all the detail you can think of to help show your ideas to those readers, needing to focus not on losing them. And what I mean by this is when writing, we need to use the same key words as an anchor for all the complex ideas and examples we connect and needing the audience to recognize the main idea. I can relate because when I write an essay or a research paper, sometimes I do not mention those key words or main ideas here and there because I feel it is being repeated one too many times. As a writer, I have to consider the readers perspective and understand that they do not see my main ideas and key words repeated, they see them as being re-ensured because they are key words and main ideas.

The fifth and final metaphor I chose is called Wash-And-Wear Paragraphs. This metaphor explains the purpose in writing short and lengthy paragraphs. And what I mean by this is a writer should want to write paragraphs that your target audience can handle without overwhelming them. “Writers need to remember that paragraphs help readers focus and manage their analytical energies. It’s good to have some variance in size and shape but not to overtax your readers with too much variation; it’s useful to write each paragraph with a clear beginning and ending to direct readers’ attention; and it’s helpful if paragraphs come with a blend of information and analysis to help readers “see what you mean” about your subpoints and see how they relate to the overall point of your essay” (Reid 15).

Works Cited

Reid, E. Shelley. “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students.” Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2011. 3-23. Writing Spaces. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.

Reading like a Writer Should Be

Reading like a writer can sometimes not be the easiest thing to do but if you take the time to read through it thoroughly you will be able to understand why the writer uses that way of thinking. Most of the time you read in order to learn how to write or how the author writes. For instance, they say “you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text” ( Bunn 72). For me there was always one book in particular that I was able to grasp was “Blood on the River” by Elisa Carbone. I had read this book over and over again and was able to understand the author’s writing style. For a bit of background to understand it’s about a boy named Samuel Collier an orphan on the streets of London picked up by Captain John Smith on the Mayflower expedition to the New World. Mainly it’s centered on Virginia mostly as is gathered from a collection of records, letters, reports and all sorts of other information from those times. Mainly the author was trying to convey the story from the perspective of one of the colonialists and try to tell the story to as much detail as she could. Trying to give the reader the best told story even if some of it were not from the people themselves. This form is one of two ways we can read like a writer. Though another way we can interpret it is to read at the book as a whole from concrete details in the writing to get an overall view of what the author is trying to convey to the reader. Also since there was not too many people at the time that this book was published that did do in depth research on the colonists themselves rather where the sites they lived on. Elisa Carbone was trying to convey to the reader’s what the colonists life was like during those tough and tumbling days during the early colonization of Europeans in the region. You learn to read like a writer by attempting to understand the ideas and the concepts they when writing these stories to the best of your ability. For instance, “We see the choices the writer has made, and we see how the writer has coped with the consequences of those choices” (Bunn 75). This quote means the way the writer writes it based on his choices can also affect the way we read the story and can change drastically based on the author’s choice. Reading like a writer can sometimes be difficult to interpret but we eventually understand them over time and develop our own sense of understanding as we continue to both read and write on our own.

Works Cited

Bunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.