Thanks for visiting Erin’s weblog, the home of my Multi-Genre Research Project, as well as, many other pieces of writing completed for my CD. 315 Computer Networking course at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. My research project discusses how adequate needs assessment of English as a Second Language (ESL) clients can assist the speech-language pathologist in developing effective treatment plans. This work may be accessed by clicking on the link provided above and all other work completed for this class may be accessed by clicking here. Please feel free to browse around and to leave any questions or comments you may have regarding my work. To contact me through email please use the following address: nichols18@marshall.edu. Enjoy yourself and come back soon!

Copyright 2002.

This week I set out to develop a plan for navigating through my blog, revising and editing some of my previous work, completing the peer review assignment, and writing my online journal. All in all, this week did not present a great deal of content compared to previous weeks. I’d say that the assignment that took me the most time to complete was setting up ways to navigate through my blog. Actually, I am still not completely finished with this assignment because no real specifics were given on the assignment sheet about what exactly must be completed. I already know that when people enter my blog, they will find a short paragraph revealing the purpose for the blog and a general idea about the contents. Then I want to provide at least two different ways that people can access my blog. One, of course, will be the Table of Contents that I created earlier in the week, but I am unsure about what the other will be. I know that people can access all of my actual genres through my unifying genre, the letter to the employer, but I don’t want to present this as a link on the first page, because viewers probably wouldn’t understand it if they haven’t read the other pieces of my work. As far as presenting my blog as a credible source, I have not done a very good job of this so far because I have not included my sources in all of my genres yet. I guess that is one huge goal that I am going to try to get accomplished very soon, if not by tonight. I really need to go back and view some of the information on credible sources of information on the web, because I have already forgotten a great deal of the criteria. In regards to the peer review assignment, I did not have to spend an incredible amount of time searching through others’ blogs for my responses or looking for ones that helped me in revising my content. For the most part, I remembered the comments I made to people about their work’s content and it was easy for me to find where I left them. Also, it didn’t take me long to choose three of the most beneficial comments on my work because these are the comments I have already used to help direct my revising efforts. I guess what surprised me about that assignment was that we, as peer reviewers, were not really suppose to focus on mechanics. I mean, is that some unwritten rule or something? I really had no idea. It’s possible that I read the peer reviewing instructions too quickly and overlooked that specific information, but honestly, sometimes the person’s content didn’t need changed when I reviewed it. It’s definitely a lot easier to pick out mechanical areas in others’ work because this is an area that we all have had a great deal of experience with. On the other hand, it was difficult for me to address content issues in others’ work because I haven’t researched that person’s topic and I am unfamiliar with most of the issues related to content. Therefore, I just tried my best to chose areas in my group members’ work that were unclear to me since I didn’t know the specifics of their topic. The primary process that I used to complete this week’s assignments was to get some of the work finished early on in the week and some of it later. As usual, I was not able to spread little chunks of this work out throughout the week. I’m sorry, but my weeks are way too hectic for that. Besides, I hate thinking about the computer and this class everyday. I have enjoyed this course and am proud of the work I have completed for it, but I have to give myself time to reflect on my work by not doing anything computer-related for a day or so at a time. On Monday, as soon as the assignments were posted, I began constructing a table of contents. I’m glad that I now have this finished because it will be easier for me to construct the way that I want to have people browse through my weblog. I also spent some time on Monday going back to some of my group members’ comments about my work and then revising in places that I felt needed it. Over the weekend, I completed the rest of the assignments and found that they really weren’t too time-consuming. At this point I have no questions, but I do have goals regarding areas that I need to improve upon in my blog. For instance, I need to just sit down and cite…everything! It’s driving me bonkers that everything is not cited and that I did not do this along the way. I guess it just slipped my mind, but I don’t see how because that is such an important factor in creating credible work. This won’t be too difficult for me, though, because I pretty much know exactly what information sources I used in each one of my genres. Another goal of mine for next week is to perfect the ways to navigate through my blog. This week I just got a general idea of how I wanted to do this, but I feel that it is not good enough yet. Therefore, next week I am going to work on revising all components of the “Tie the Threads” assignment, because I definitely still feel that the threads of my work are very loose. I believe that is all for this week. We’re getting closer to the end, but I still don’t feel that my work is nearly close to the way I want it. I guess that means all Thanksgiving break will be spent on the computer. Oh well! I think the quote below provides a good example of why I, as well as, some of my other classmates, are in dire need of Thanksgiving Break this year. Until next time…

“You can always find reasons to work. There will always be one more thing to do. But when people don't take time out, they stop being productive. They stop being happy, and that affects the morale of everyone around them.”
--Carisa Bianchi TBWA/CHIAT/DAY San Francisco, in Fast Company