Reflection on Suggestions for Informational Report

In my group discussion, we talked about how we should organize and develop our ideas for our informational reports. We said to start the paper with background knowledge of our fields and describe them. Then provide a clear thesis at the end of the first paragraph. Next, write about the interviews and how writing impacts their jobs. Use quotes, and introduce and explain them, so the reader will understand it clearly. Next write about the academic and nonacademic sources found about the field, and summarize how writing is used. Also, compare and contrast the interviews and sources. Conclude on restating the thesis, and explaining the main topics.
Four important points I learned from the discussion is use quotes for interviews and sources, summarize the main ideas of sources, introduce and explain quotes, and explain how writing is used for the job in the field.

Summary of Interviews and Sources

Summary of Interviews

I interviewed two experts from the field of Health and Human Performance, Susan Peacock and Mike Jett. Susan Peacock was the first person I interviewed. She earned a MEd with a focus in psychology and a MS in nutritional sciences. Her job is being a lecturer and teacher. She’s my Healthy Lifestyles teacher. Writing has a major impact on her job. She is a contributing author in an ACSM fitness manual, writes emails daily, and other kinds less frequently. The main genre of her writings is expository and main audience is business partners. Most of her writing experience came from high school, not college. Although her job doesn’t require much writing, it’s still needed and very important.

The second person I interviewed was Mike Jett. He has an Md in Exercise Physiology and a BA in History. He co-owns a fitness business and is a full-time faculty instructor here at UofL. Writing is also a very important aspect of his job. He writes weekly newsletters for his fitness business, proposals every few months, and emails daily. He also posts a modified version of his weekly newsletter on a Health/Fitness Blog hosted on the Courier Journal website. He says he write informatively and sometimes adds comedy for entertainment purposes. His audience is people interested in health, nutrition, fitness, and exercise science students. He says writing in college helped him become a better writer for his job, and he writes about an hour a day.

The interviews helped me get a new perspective of how experts in the field I’m pursuing write. I didn't know that those in the Health and Human Performance field wrote daily, but now I know they do. Depending on the job in the field, you can write newsletters, proposals, emails, and many more informational papers.

Analysis of Sources

From a nonacademic source I found, people who are in athletic training, which is a job in the field of Health and Human Performance, use writing and it’s a very important part of their jobs. Athletic trainers design work outs for athletes and record the progress. They also record the progress of the rehabilitation process of injured athletes. They must also fill out paper work and write emails. Another source talked about personal trainers. Their job is similar to athletic trainers, but they’re more focused on fitness and weight loss for their clients instead of injury prevention and treatment. They write articles in fitness magazines and make dietary plans for clients. Some people in this field can become physical education teachers and health educators. To do this they should know how to write and communicate with their class, and also write emails. There's also many more careers in this field that may have to do other types of writing. 

Analysis of Quotes

In my English 101 class last semester, I wrote an essay about stress in college students. To have evidence of my claim and make points, I used quotes from academic and nonacademic sources. One of the sources I used in the essay was, “One out of four students report experiencing daily stress” (Schuder). For this quote to be clear to the audience, I had to introduce it by explaining to the audience by giving them an example of how stressful college is for me. And to conclude the quote I explained how stressed out college students are and what causes their stress. I think I did a good job of explaining the quote, and showing that the statistic is actually true.

In the same essay I used a long quote from a source. I didn’t summarize it because I felt like it was really important information for the essay. To introduce this long quote, I gave background information on the quote so the audience will have an understanding of it. I concluded it by simply paraphrasing what the author stated. I could have improved the conclusion of the quote by explaining how it was important and saying how useful it is for college students to know.  

Summary of Source and Interview Questions

The source I used is about athletic training. This career is one of the many careers in the Health and Human Performance field. The genre of this non-academic source is informative. This source informs the audience on what athletic trainers do and how writing is important for them.

The source is about athletic training. Athletic trainers prevent, examine, and treat athletes’ injuries. They use writing in many different ways. They record the athletes’ progression through rehabilitation. They also record the injuries of the athletes and their performance on the field. Another way they can use writing is making work out plans for the athletes.

Interview Questions

1.       How do you use writing in your field of Health and Human Performance?

2.       What is your job and what do you do?

3.       How does writing impact your job?

4.       Do you write a lot?

5.       What type of writing do you do?

Analysis of Assignment 1 - Isaiah Jones

The purpose of this assignment is to write an Informational Report on the role that writing plays on a specific profession. I need to interview two or three writers in the field of the profession and analyze two academic and two non-academic sources.

The rhetorical situation of this assignment is to increase the awareness of the profession. The purpose for this is to teach students about the profession and its writing skills. The audience is a group of high school students who are interested in this profession. The stance is my attitude toward this profession, whether I feel it’s interesting or important. The media will be a written report possibly with illustrations or charts to help clearly present the information of the profession. 

Rhetorical Situations - Isaiah Jones

A rhetorical situation is

• any set of circumstances that involves at least one person using some sort of communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person.
• the context of a rhetorical act, made up of a speaker, an issue, and an audience.
• refers to all of the features of audience, purpose, and exigence that serves to create a moment suitable for a rhetorical response.

Analysis of Proposal Argument from Eng 101 Using Rhetorical Situations - Isaiah Jones

In my English 101 class last semester I wrote a proposal argument addressing the university’s general education requirements. The rhetorical situations influenced my writing greatly.

The purpose of this proposal argument was to propose a problem to the university on general education requirements, inform them with facts on why the solution to the proposal was reasonable, and persuade them with benefits of the solution in the justification. Evidence of showing purpose in the proposal was telling the audience exactly what needed to be changed. In the proposal I said the university should change the number of credits needed.

The audience in my proposal was the University General Education Curriculum Committee. This was the right audience to address the problem because they could potentially act on it. I addressed them in the cover letter and repeated the name multiple times in the proposal so they know it was intended for them.

The genre of this writing is a proposal. The proposal needed to have a certain organization such as a cover letter, stated problem, solution, justification, conclusion, and sources.

My stance in my proposal was persuasive. In my justification I persuaded the audience with the benefits of acting on the solution of requiring less credits. I said students would “graduate earlier, save money, and start careers earlier.” By telling the audience these advantages of the solution, it made my stance much stronger.

The mediums I used in this proposal were the headings and graph. There were three major headings: the problem, solution, and justification. These gave the proposal a sense of clarity for the audience so they will know exactly where to look for each part of the proposal. There was also a table included in it with data from a survey.

Ways to improve on my next paper are to have a better stance and stay strong with my opinions on the topic. I can also respond to opposing arguments and multiple perspectives of the audience.

Syllabus - Isaiah Jones

After reading the syllabus for this course, I have a few questions. My first one is on the homework assignments. Do all of our homework assignments need to be posted on our blogs and printed, or just posted on our blogs? I think it would be much easier to just post them to the blog instead of doing both. And also, are all homework assignments from the book?

I’m also confused on the grading policy. A majority of our grade is daily responses, quizzes, and in-class assignments. So will it hurt my grade if I miss a few daily responses and in-class assignments? And also I see if we can revise our essays. Can we revise all of our essays or just one?