Post 7: Research Ideas

Let's see. I would really like to do to something with Acting, Emotions, Characters, "Getting Lost in a Book",  Writing, and Young Adult Books.

Sub Topics:
Acting:

• Actors and Character connection
• Bringing a Book to Life (On stage or Movie)
• Become a Character to Write a Character
• Are authors like actors?

Emotions

• What is it about a book that makes us cry?
• What makes us get attached to Characters?
• What makes us worry about Characters?
• How to Authors convey emotions without telling the reader?

Characters

• How are characters made (creation of characters)
• What makes a character different from real people? "The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense."
• Do we pick up books because we feel some kind of connection to characters?
• Character emotions and Human emotions
• Connection between Reader and Character (like them? not like them?)

"Getting Lost in a Book"

• How to people "get lost in a book"? 
• What makes people "get lost in a book"?
• What type of language is used to create a book that one can "get lost in"?
• Is it the characters that get us "lost in the book? The writing? The setting? The plot? All of them?

Writing:

• How do children's book differ in writing than young adult or adult?
• Can children's books stand by themselves? Or do they need pictures?
• How are characters written? (writing of characters)

Young Adult Literature:

• What makes a book "young adult"? What makes up a young adult book?
• What situations are used in young adult books?
• Why are young adult books really popular right now?
• What is it about young adult books that we connect to?
• What types of characters are in young adult books?
• What types of emotions are in young adult books?

Research I found on some topics:

Characters and Emotions:

Name- Alex Neill

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20014438

http://www.amazon.com/Characters-Emotion-Viewpoint-Techniques-Viewpoints/dp/1582973164

http://books.google.com/books?id=Pgic3wBO9n8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Getting Lost in a Book:

http://www.livescience.com/7831-lost-books.html

http://www.studlife.com/news/2009/02/02/getting-lost-in-a-book-is-not-as-hard-as-it-seems/

What makes a book young adult:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/04/what-does-young-adult-mean/51316/

http://www.ianbone.com.au/pdfs/YAFiction_IanBone.pdf

Why do books make us cry?

http://writersblocknz.weebly.com/1/post/2010/11/why-do-some-books-make-us-cry.html

Authors and Acting:

http://www.yahighway.com/2011/10/act-naturally-why-writers-should.html

http://tony-delorger.hubpages.com/hub/Writers-or-Actors-or-Both

Lots of stuff on how to write a character in fiction

Finding a lot on adults buying young adult novels?? Maybe there is a research topic here?

I'm not sure what I want to write about. There are so many things... These are my ideas and some things I found on some of those topics. 

I know I didn't really follow the rules of the worksheet, but I'm still not sure what I want to write about. I was hoping writing down all of the things I thought of writing about would help, but so far I have not been very successful. I feel like the more I find, the more things I want to write about or research. I'm pretty lost right now.

*Added*
Maybe what young adult books make people cry and why? Are there similarities? Characteristics?

Post 6: Literacy Narrative Analysis

I decided to pose a few questions based on the second Literacy Narrative. (I know we were supposed to do one but I feel like these questions all have something to do with each other. Maybe I can form a bigger question from the 3 the further I go along.)

Is "fanfiction" real writing?
Is writing ever original? "original ideas"
Do "real" writers work alone?

Coding: 
"Real"- writing that is considered publishable
 "Original"- ideas that are new/ different/ never seen before
"Alone"- working by oneself

Classifying:
"Real":
Authored- already published
Fanfiction- stories based on already published works
Academic- writing for school
Unauthored- stories created to be published, but not published yet
Oral- stories that are spoken, not written down

"Original":
New: ideas never seen before
Repeated: ideas that have been seen before
Creative: ideas that have been seen before, but are differently put


"Alone":
Alone- working by ones self
Collaborative- working with others

Patterns:
For many for a work to be considered "real" the work must be Authored
But does that make the other works (Fanfiction, Academic, Unauthored or Oral) any less "real"?
BIGGER QUESTION: FOR WRITING TO BE "REAL" DOES IT HAVE TO BE PUBLISHED?
In this story no, because each has a process that is like Authored or has the potential to be Authored
There are components of each that would constitute that of Authored works
-characters, dialogue, narrative, transitions,
Fanfiction- though no original idea can be considered Authored EXAMPLE: 50 Shades of Grey was originally a Twilight fanfiction
Academic- though there may not be necessarily characters or original ideas academic writing is published everyday EXAMPLE: Journals in Major areas or published Major Thesises
Unauthored- components of an Authored work but just not published EXAMPLE: Manuscripts being reviewed by publishing companies
Oral- though not written on paper the components of an Authored piece are still there. They may eventually be published. EXAMPLE: The Illiad 

No idea is really New, although there are some. But they are all based on Repeated ideas. Many times Repeated is published, even though it has been seen before. However, what usually gets them published is the Creative. They don't mind if it isn't New, just as long as it has a different idea or concept or component.

Also, no true "author" really works Alone. They can't be published. To be published one works with others. It's all Collaborative. That is just a myth that writers sit on their desk in endless days by themselves, pounding out masterpieces. Even Shakespeare is Collaborative. He didn't actually write the stories down himself, his actors repeated the plays to be published.

Hypothesis:
To be considered "real," writing does not have to be published.

Testing the Hypothesis:
Using the Literacy Narrative-
Created their own stories when they were young during playtime
- characters, voices, personality, dialogue, settings, relationships, plots, subplots
Done in a group, not alone (Collaborative)
Done orally (Oral)- doesn't matter the choice of tool for the language
(At first considered it not "real" writing, but now sees that is it [Authored])

Only had academic writing, but realized that too is "real" writing (Academic)

Playtime stories were written down [Oral to Unauthored], (Collaborative)

Fanfiction
-characters, setting, voice
Collaborative- many people writing together, creating people or settings, sometimes reusing them from already made stories
Online writing- not usually considered Authored, but found that it can be publishable
Just as passionate about writing and characters as Authored

Wrote her own story, at first by her sister, but then wrote it herself (Unauthored)
Had a penpal who liked her story and gave her valuable feedback (Collaborative)

Conclusion or "Theoretical Story":
So my conclusion is that "real" writing is not necessarily published. It is supported by the narrative as well as the examples I gave earlier. 

* I didn't change anything except add this conclusion

Notes for 9/20 and 9/25

9/20

1. Punch line:
Audience connection - familiarity or understanding
Play on words
2. Development:
Ridiculous use of terms in punchline
Image- audience connection and ridiculous surprise
Length
3. Level of violence:
Force for "bad" wins

What we've done so far:
puzzle
Interview
Jokes

Visual/ formal analysis
-interview behavior
-visual arrangement in texts
Interview/ oral history
Textual analysis
-how language was used
- features of the language

Inductive theory- bring things in
 Deductive theory- put things in/ take things out?

LITERACY NARRATIVES
How author became a writer and reader

1. Complicated influence of family on reading and writing relationships, struggle to choose to be a writer, when are you a "writer", optimistic, younger
2. Stepping into "being" a writer, family, collaborative writing, when are you a "real writer", optimistic, younger
3. how writer struggled to write, surprise, persisting, family factors, more negative/fearful, nontraditional learner (older)

why it's harder to write a story about not liking to write:
because it's harder to write a negative story
Social constructionism- when we tell story's we aren't telling them word by word, but by chunks- hero stories, hero rebel story

Trying to find out the different ways of writing and how to break it down so that we are able to understand them further and study them to find similarities

Stories are different, but written the same
The amount of time that goes by can change our outlooks
You get ideas by connecting them to our past ideas
The way you tell your story is by your resources and cultural resources
Your identity is your stories.

Hwk: analyze literary narrative, ask a question (ex: what is the relationship between family and writing? Are these stories influenced by the writers age?), make a list of points answering these questions, and give evidence


9/25

Sample Literacy Narrative Piece in Class:

8/10

You did a great analysis of the paper. I thought that you broke up the pages and ideas of the story very well. You also did coding and categorizing. However, you didn't break it up that way. An analysis is set up as Coding, Classifying, Pattern, Hypothesis, Testing the Hypothesis, and Theoretical Story. In this prompt we wanted a question first and then analysis. I do understand that you might need to break up the story first, but pose a question after breaking it up. Then analyze the question. It would make it easier on you so that you don't need the extra notes that aren't on that subject. Also, we asked for an answer to the question, which you did not do. However, your notes are very detailed and you do have enough evidence and prompts that you would be able to come to an answer.

Things I'm interested in Studying:
Writing for Plays
Acting and Characters
Writing Characters and Acting and Authors
Connection to Characters
What makes us connect to characters?
How are characters believeable?
What makes us cry? Is it the writing? The suspetion of disbelieve (believing the story is real)? Connection to the characters?
How are children's books different from young adult and young adult from adult and so on?
What language is different in different age group stories?
willing suspense of disbelieve, what makes us do that? what type of language and writing?

Class:
Pros and Cons of Teen internet writing
Kids and Videogames
Story Plots/ how to develop (writing process)
reading online vs print
how children react to picture books (Me: can picture books work without pictures?)
divorce/parents/children
what methods work best with teaching kids to read and write (pre/elementary school)
School vs self writing
texting vs talking
language communities
grading
"lost in a book" language (ludic)
cultural influences on reading choices

Post 5: Shaggy Dog Storys Prediction

Coding:
What makes a story "funny" or "not funny"
"Punch Line"- the end of the story, where the joke is revealed
"Timing"- how quickly or slowly the punch line is revealed
"Emotion"- emotional reponses that can come from the reveal of the punch line
"Word Choice"- in pertaining to the punchline
"Images"- does it create an image in the reader's mind
"Connection"- the connection that can me made/ associated with the story

Classifying:
"Punch Line"
This can be broken down into a few different categories: there can be truthful punchlines (true), ridiculous/strange/obscure punchlines (ridiculous), and the power to explain the story (explanation)
"Timing"
This can be broken down into: too much detail or revealed too slowly (slow), just right (good), or revealed too quickly or not enough detail (fast)
"Emotion"
This is any emotion felt while reading. (Confused, surprised, shocked, satisfied, happy, etc)
"Word Choice"
This is broken down to: multiple meanings of the punchline (double meaning), where the letters or words are switched (switched), and sounding like another popular saying (sounds like)
"Images"
This breaks down into does it create an image (image) or not (no image)
"Connection"
This breaks down to whether the person had a connection in the story in some way. Either from an experience (experience), memory (memory), interest (interest), bad emotion (bad emotion), disassociation (disassociation)  or no connection (none)

Pattern:
It was found that stories that were found funny had these elements:
Punchline: True or Ridiculous
Timing: Good
Emotion: Surprised or Shocked
Word Choice: Double meaning or switched
Images: Image
Connection: Memory or Experience

Stories that were not as funny had these elements:
Punchline: Ridiculous or Explanation
Timing: Slow or Fast
Emotion: Confused or Shocked
Word Choice: Sounds like
Images: No image
Connection: Bad Emotion, Disassociation, or None

When looking at the stories it seems that a "funny" story would be:
1 "Frayed Knot": Ridiculous, Good, Double meaning, Image, Experience
4 "Czech in the Male": Ridiculous, Good, Surprised, Shocked, Double meaning, Image, Experience

According to my findings they would like 4 "Czech in the Male" over 1 "Frayed Knot" because it has more elements of a 'funny' story  

However when looking at the stories the one that would be more funny would be

When looking at the stories it seems that a "not funny" story would be:
2. "Hollandiase": Ridiculous, Confused, Sounds like, No Image, Disassociation
3. "Gandhi": Fast, Confused, Sounds like, No image, None

According to my findings they would like 3 "Gandhi" over 2 "Hollandiase" because it has less elements of a 'not funny' story


Hypothesis:
The class will chose 4 "Czech in the Male" funniest, then 1 "Frayed Knot" as second funniest, then 3 "Gandhi" as third funniest, and finally 2 "Hollandaise" as least funniest.

Order: 4,1,3,2

Testing Hypothesis:
We shall test it in class!

"Theoretical Story":
It shall be revealed possibly after class!

Notes for class 9/13 & 9/18

9/13
Before interview they need a signed consent form for interviewees

Going over interviews:
Focus: September 11th
Format: interview but written in paragraph form
Report of question, but no answer, only feeling recorded
A: subject
K: interviewer
After thoughts
Recorded K's answers, not her answers

Naming:
Ages
Emotions
Afterthoughts
Q&A formations
Paragraph formations
Understanding
Security

Categorizing:
Age, understanding, separated from family for younger children(scary)
Paragraph form vs Q&A
Security before and after

Age makes for similar types of emotion and being away from family , knowledge, kids pick up emotions
Experience is remembered almost everything, even when not understanding what was happening

Assignment: work on this analysis

Tuesday 9/18

Make sure to write the code of the coding:
 example "grade school" for elementary school age
"confusion"
"emotions"

Joke
Play on words, a widely known saying (HUMOR)
Have to know the quote to understand
Transliteration (switching the words to sound like another)
Switch first letter of key nouns or names
Punch line is at the end
Introduced in the beginning and at the end
Violence
Story:beginning, middle, and end (quote that sums it up, like a moral)
Provides enough info to explain the quote
*decides to rank which story is funniest 1-5
Funniest: Panda, Friday/God
Why?
Connection to story
Visual image
Conflict between the image and action

Post 4: Analysis of Oral History of 9/11

"The Chandler Challenge": Set up an analysis of some of the oral history data posted for Blog 3.  You can analyze data from one blog or several.  The point of this exercise is for you to practice the analytic process we went through in class.  Name and classify what you see in the interview; look for and describe patterns; put forward a hypothesis and test it = and see if you can come up with a theory (explanation) that accounts for the patterns and relationships you see in the data.

I have decided to look at age of the people spoke about their experience.

Coding:

• Look at all of the data and note ages/age ranges that were mentioned
• Look for emotions/ reactions in the blogs that mentioned age/age range
• Looked at the Blogs of Corrine, Josh, Kelsee, Rachel, Sara, Shana, Tshandi, Andrea, and my own (Brigit)

Classification:

• Most ages mentioned are 9 through 11
• Some ages weren't specified however some can be guessed by the mentioning of grade, school, or age difference
• The emotions talked about are confused, not understanding, shocked, upset, and afraid

Patterns:

• Almost all of the students who were about elementary school aged felt emotions such as "confused" and "not understanding"
• Many talked about noticing friends getting picked up from school 
• Some mentioned teacher's reactions
• Many talk about family member's reaction or their reaction to family members
• Beefed up security in the airports is mentioned a lot 

Hypothesis:

• Looking through the oral history and looking back at the patterns, I noticed there are a lot of similar feelings and reactions to 9/11. I also noticed that in many interviews a few topics kept popping up: like fellow students, family members, and airports. 
• Based on the data I think it would be interesting to look at age, reaction individually and then reaction upon seeing others (students, teachers, family members, etc.)
• Children who were elementary school age at the time of 9/11 were at first confused, but upon seeing the reactions of others, took those reactions up themselves.

Testing the Hypothesis:

• *Note: All names mentioned are interviewers, if they speak of a personal experience it will say "Personal Experience)
• Corrine: Too young to understand what was going on. Then saw her mom home early and her mom saw smoke, knew something was wrong. A few days later saw a girl on TV crying, it really hit her that this happened
• Josh: Mentioned not understanding and focused on getting home. Says anyone under 11 has no recollection of 9/11
• Kelsee: Event wasn't important to her until she found out one of her family members was involved and then she was shocked. Her family was consoling each other and mother was afraid to let her out of her sight. Personal Experience: she didn't understand and was happy to be out of school.
• Rachel: No one was sure what was going on, kids were picked up early (No feelings mentioned on this)
• Sara: she was confused, didn't know why everyone was upset. Was upset herself when her friends were getting picked up and not her. She didn't understand what had happened until "later on"
• Shana: Mentioned that they were both confused (interviewee and personal experience) and noticed the reactions of others, but other than that had no feelings other than confusion
• Tshandi: said that she was confused but excited to get out of school early. She then did research and cried upon reading some things that had happened. She also mentioned her family being together and watching the tv sadly together
• Andrea: said that he was too young to understand and didn't understand until later when his parents were talking about it in the Philippines

Hypothesis (Attempt 2):

• So my previous Hypothesis was wrong. Only a few hit the criteria. However my new hypothesis would be something to the effect of understanding as a young child.
• Those who experienced 9/11 at grade school age did not understand the magnitude of the event that took place that day until much later.

Testing the Hypothesis: 

• looking back at the data, this all proves true

"Theoretical Story"

• Children who were still in elementary school during 9/11 did not understand the magnitude of the event because they were too young to realize what was going on. All experienced different feelings there after, but during the event confusion seemed to be the most prevalent emotion. It is not until later do they understand the importance of such a thing happening. The ways they understood the significance is different however. Some seen it in family members, some learned it in school, some saw it in airports, and others saw it on the news. 

I'm not exactly sure if my "Theoretical Story" is what is wanted, but that is what I have gathered. 

Edit: 9/19

In class we discussed that we needed to expand on some of our points in our analysis. I realize that I need to create codes for my test. So here I shall create codes:

"elementary age"- this would represent any age that is for children that would be in elementary school at the time

"emotions"- would be the emotions that I got from children, which I can break down further

• "Confused"- any confused emotions or not understanding
• "Happy"- any happy or joyful emotions
• "Scared"- any emotions that have to do with fear or afriad (I can also break this down further into "fear for self" and "fear for others")
• "Upset"- any sad emotions

Then I would record how many times a saw each emotion. Maybe if I had done this initially I would have formed a better hypothesis.

Blog Post 3: Interviewer Generra, Subject Brigit

I was the SUBJECT. 

INTERVIEWER: Generra Johnson (in pink)

Asked Where were you?

Springfiend Township Elementary School, 9/11

Tells me: If I Don't feel comfortable answering questions you don't have to answer

Asked What was happening? In class, students started getting pulled out of class, didn't think anything of it, assistant principal pulled teacher aside and talked to him, no longer taught class

Asked What went through my mind as I saw it happen? I didn't understand really what was going on, I noticed children being pulled out of class and we knew something was up. Finally the assistant principal came back and told us what happened. And I was really worried because we couldn't get home because we were near a military base. The only way we could go home was if we were picked up. Well my family couldn't so I was upset and my cousins were pulled out of class. And then my aunt pulled my brother and I as well

Her father is handicap, left her in school, didn't find out the whole day, only found out what happened when you got home. Faculty told them the next day, private school. Maybe didn't tell them because they were a private school

Asked how did it feel? I didn't really understand. I knew I had to be upset and felt upset. When I got home I couldn't watch the news, almost every channel was about the news. So I had to watch sponge bob so I wasn't upset

Scared for her aunt, she was there, on vacation, she was at her house, her father was greatful, she didn't understand what was going on, knew people who family didn't go home for hours, was worried and said “Wow” now

Wanted to ask more questions

What I felt during the interview

Interviewer is not prepared- makes interview not authentic/ uneasy

Preparing with interview/ makes me feel uneasy

Started to feel comfortable after she said that I don't have to answer questions that I don't feel comfortable answering

Took a while writing down answers, felt a little uncomfortable, but not too bad

Really liked when she started to share her experience and it was easy to bounce off of that

Post 2: Analysis

In my opinion analysis is the use of our previous knowledge in finding a connection to different subjects or an explanation to a proposed problem and our process in coming to these findings.

Analysis works by first figuring out what it is exactly we are supposed to do. Are we making a connection or trying to find an explanation? Then we look at what we are given and use our previous knowledge to find patterns to help us towards our goal. After all of that we create a theory or multiple theories that based on our knowledge my bring us our answer. Next we test our hypothesis, maybe do some research from outside sources, to come to a conclusion and see if our theory is true. If it doesn't work or if there are exceptions then we go back and re-look at our theory to possibly create a new one or better one. Sometimes there may not be a right answer (as in trying to find connections), but there must be enough evidence to support that claim. Once you have tested your theory and it is either true or true for the most part then you have completed your analysis. 

I decided to break down the one that I find most interesting which is my acting choice. However, I'm not sure if I will be able to find research on it or anything. I feel like it would be really hard so this is not my official choice of what I will be writing about.

Acting & Characters of Writing

Previous Knowledge/ Ideas:

Each character is a person. Although we, as people, may not be actors professionally, we are all essentially actors. If we think of our lives as a TV show we are the so called "star" in our own lives. 

When writing a character the author must think of themselves as that person. Who are they? What is their background? Where did they come from? What are their motivations? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? 

This is all part of how an actor prepares for a role. They learn the ins and outs of a characters so that they can come across as believable as that person. 

Authors must make their characters believable because characters are people. To make their characters believable they themselves must become actors.

Coding/Categories:

People are real and believable so the Character itself must be believable

Character = Person

To create a believe able character the author must become that character

Author = Character

To give life to characters of a play or novel many times Actors are hired to become that Character, showing they are believable
Actor = Character

Pattern:

Let's use some math shall we? Here is what we have so far

Character = Person

Author = Character

Actor = Character

Character can either be Actor or Author or Person so essentially a Character is all three. So we can replace anything with character and it would work.

Author = Person

Author = Actor

Actor = Person

Theory:

To properly create or write a character the author must become that character. He or she is therefore an Actor.

Author = Actor

I'm not sure if any of this makes sense. I feel like I'm going in a circle with this. Haha! Comments, questions, suggestions are all encouraged, appreciated and NEEDED! Help? haha!

Notes for 9/6

Here are my notes from 9/6/12

Figure out what the problem is, read the directions

Notice the pattern/shapes

Notice the combination on the page and our assumptions on the world or past experience

Our knowledge of puzzles tell us that the blank is going to be one of these 5 shapes

Notice that there are different orientations

Look at the problem from different angles

Notice that the directions are at the bottom so the creator would want you to look at it from that angle

Pattern might be by row or my column

Sets of two, repeated (up and down, diagonal)

Only 1 set of two going across

When you don’t know use other resources, such as the internet

Answer:  upside down club

If you want to figure it out look at it in different ways

How we read:  left to right starting at the top

Read out loud: Notice a pattern?

Replace the diamond with a period

Notice the pattern repeats each time while adding a shape

..club.clubsquare.clubsquareupsidedownclub.clubsquareupsidownclubheart. etc

Before each heart there will be an upside down club, so the blank is an upside down club

Obstacles:

Only some patterns worked while others didn’t

Analysis:

1.       Name what you see (coding)

2.       Classify (categorizing)

3.       Patterns

4.       Hypothesis, Theory, Story for how the data fits together

            5.       Test the theory 

Post 1: Research in Writing Studies

      From the readings it seems that people do research on not just the words that we use, but the forms of communication, the types of words and how we use them, and how others writing effects the readers. Oral history was a topic discussed, based on speaking about a topic and making that into written word or research for written word. Oral history has many strict rules that one must adhere to, however it is very helpful with understanding the past as well as keeping a permanent recording for the future. Sometimes with oral language it is easier to keep interpretations to a minimum because you can hear how the person feels about a subject in their voice, which you can not do with writing. It seems that oral communication is better when one wants a specific view to come across than written communication. Another article wrote about how teachers written comments about students' work affect their students future work and what is the best way to give these comments. They wish to accomplish both improving the student's writing as well as the student's esteem with their writing. Teachers who misunderstand a student's intentions, write vague comments, and give off a negative tone discourage students. While detailed and encouraging comments make a student more confident and more willing to work on their writing. One article suggested using professional writing as examples for students to follow so they have a better understanding of what they are to write about. By reading other scholarly papers they are able to take some ideas from them and apply them to their own writing, which will improve their writing. They also suggest that the students write about what they are interested in and connect this to writing so that they are engaged in their writing. It seems that people can do research on anything and somehow connect it to writing.

I am interested in writing about a few different topics. 

1. The language and situations that are found in the young adult novels and what makes a young adult novel "young adult."
2. How fiction is written for different age groups would be interesting. Like the type of language one must use in each age group for them to understand.
3. The experience of acting and how it helps a writer write about different characters. As an actor you learn how to become a different person with different emotions and ways of dealing with situations. As a writer you must do this with each individual character, get into the emotions of that character for that situation. I believe researching the connection between acting and writing characters would be interesting.
4. How we each put our own interpretation on what we read and what we write. How everything is somehow a part of us or what we associate with us and our lives (by us, I mean each individual person)