Blumms's Blog

Research Note

blumms — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:32:08 +0000

I think that, using my survey and all other sources I have found, there is enough information to support my argument. All that is really left is applying my sources to actually help get my argument across. In order for my survey to work in my paper, I have to use it in the opposite way I inteneded it to work. I thought that since most of my friends have divorced parents, the majority of the people I surveyed would also have divorced parents. However, that was not the case. Now I think I can use the survey to show that children from married parents have a postive outlook on their own relationships. This will help gain credibility for those reading my paper that have married parents.

Annoatation

blumms — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:26:08 +0000

My survey results are officially done, with 97 participants. The general age group who answered questions were between age 15 and 19. Majority of them came from families with married parents. Knowing this, I am going to have to look at the way married parents affect the childrens view of relationships as opposed to basing it off of divorced parents.

Questions:

What is the marital status of your parents? 60 said married, 27 divorced, 2 legally separated, 2 single parents, 6 other
Approximately how many of your relatives are married? 8 said 25%, 17 said 50%, 60 said 75%, and 12 said 100%
Do you feel that your present relationships reflect the way your parent’s relationship appears? 12 said always, 63 said sometimes, and 22 said never
Did you grow up around someone who modeled a happy, idyllic relationship? 65 said yes, 32 said no
Do you feel the pressure of finding a “perfect” significant other? 35 said yes, 62 said no
I scrutinize every aspect of my relationships: 10 strongly agreed, 17 agreed, 49 somewhat agreed, 20 disagreed, 1 strongly disagreed
When in a relationship, does it tend to… reflect parents’ in a good way(22)/bad way(9). Opposite of parents’ in a good way(18)/bad way(2). Does not reflect parents’ relationship (46).

LAST Journal Entry!

blumms — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:55:28 +0000

I have all of the information I need to complete my paper, now it’s just time to use what my peers have given me to edit it. What I have gathered from the two people who critiqued my paper, I need a stronger argument and counterargument. My paragraphs need to be organized and shaped so that the information included relates back to my thesis. Along with just having a strong thesis, it needs to be clear with good wording. There were also some grammar mistakes that need to be fixed along with the awkwardly worded sentences. Overall, as long as I spend a full day on this paper I will be able to have a well written paper by the turn in date.

Fourth Reflection

blumms — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:33:27 +0000

I’m starting to feel good about writing project two. Now that I have all of my ideas on paper for my peer critique, I just need to review the problems in my paper. I have plenty of additional information that I can incorporate into my paper if it is necessary, so that will not be a problem. In waiting for the critiques on my paper, I don’t want to adjust anything on my paper yet. It helps to have fresh eyes look review my paper, since I’ve been dealing with it for about five weeks. One problem I had with constructing my paper includes transition between paragraphs. Like I’ve seen in other papers, my ideas were just written whenever I thought of them being able to work with my paper. Once I receive my critiques I need to organize each aspects of my writings. Another concern I have with my paper is with one of my sources. The source consisted of a survey conducted to see the effects parental divorce has on children’s attachment issues. That survey, I thought, gave really good evidence to support my argument but I did take three paragraphs to discuss it. It might have been too big of a shift from the central idea of my paper. My concern with my thesis not being arguable enough is still in the back of my mind. I think I developed a more argumentative stance, but I’m not completely sure if it works. Other than that, I’m happy with my progress so far!

Journal Entry

blumms — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:17:09 +0000

After doing one of my peer critiques, I am able to see some mistakes that I made in my paper as well. I realized that I am not the only one having a hard time finding a strong arguable stance with my thesis. I also see that organization of paragraphs makes a huge difference. In reading my class mates’ more finalized papers, thoughts seem to just be thrown in the paper to get ideas out. I know I did this as well in my paper, and now i can truly see how it affects the paper when reading it. A lot more time needs to be spent on my own paper so that I can fix things that I know I did wrong and potential problems that might occur that I notice from other papers.

Journal Entry

blumms — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:48:55 +0000

Okay. So my peer review draft is finally complete. I figured out how go about including a counter-argument and I think I have successfully come up with an arguable thesis. I’ve been struggling with that for a while, I just had to figure out what I really wanted to argue for in using all of the information I have provided. I incorporated the section of divorce that was in my sociology text-book, which I think helped my paper. I also reviewed and summed up a survey that I found included my ideas of attachment issues from parents affecting the children of divorce in different aspects. Overall I think my paper is coming along. Once I get my critiques from my peer group, I need to really focus on having a strong argument throughout the paper.

Research Note

blumms — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:53:19 +0000

Okay so I still cannont think of a debatable argument that can work with the rest of my paper. I’m waiting for more people to respond to my survey so that I can actually use my findings towards my argument. I think I have good informative info, but deffinatly need to focus more on finding an argument. My sociology book, that I am now using as a source, provides many aspects of divorce that I can use. It has statistical trends in divorce, factors associated with dicorce, and impact of dicorce on children. Even though the information provided is only a section in my book, it still my general topic of divorce. Viewing divorce from a sociological standpoint might also benefit my paper as well.

Annotation

blumms — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:46:11 +0000

As I was reading the new chapter we are about to begin in Sociology, I found another potential source. The chapter we are covering now in sociology is called “the Family and Intimate Relationships”. It discusses divorce and many aspects of it from a sociological perspective. I need to look into this further, but I think this might be a good source to used in my research paper.

Schaefer, Richard T. Sociology: a Brief Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print

Journal Entry

blumms — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:01:07 +0000

I’m still having a hard time coming up with a good enough argument, since during critiques it was clear that everyone had a hard time seeing a clear arguable thesis. I still want to write about the divorce cycle appearing in children’s romatic lives, but with the evidence I provided throughout the rest of my paper I might have to get away from that in a way. I’ve been trying to focus on my first argument paper this week so it’s been hard to do more research on this topic at the same time. The blogs are kind of throwing me off, because I feel pressured to space out my research, but I do best when I spend a whole day working on my paper.

Research Note

blumms — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:50:16 +0000

Going off what I took from the in-class critique on my paper, I have a fair amount to sources but I need to make sure they are all relevant to my topic. When I was writing my workshop draft, I used the thesis I had come up with days before. It turns out that my thesis didn’t relate to much of what I had to say throughout my paper. I need to shift my thesis into a stronger, well-working argument that will be apparent throughout my whole paper.