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)