Advocacy Draft Worksheet

What was the most surprising discovery you made while doing this worksheet?  How is your interpretation of scholarly sources going to shift based on what you noted in this worksheet?  What is the most important difference between just choosing one solution v. analyzing and discussing several solutions

The most surprising discovering while doing this worksheet was knowing that the causes relate to one another. For example, the stereotype of African American women affect them psychologically in the aspect that they have lower self-confidence, self-efficacy, self-esteem and etc. Therefore they aren’t able to come out of welfare and look for a job; hence there is more unemployment (Schott & Pavetti) because they look lower views about themselves and what they are capable of doing. So it also ties up to the high depends on welfare and why can’t come out of the welfare cycle. If only generalization and categorizing a group of people will decrease more people will be thought to be as equal and those qualities might increase. Leading to more welfare recipients coming out of welfare. Since I think that the main cause to this problem has been the psychological causes I think that now going forward with my research I will research more scholarly sources that focus on the effect and solutions other scholars have tried to advocate against stereotypes. I believe that if you analyze more than one solution you more likely to pick up certain parts of the solutions that can work and combine them with the other solutions in order to find better approach to it.

Comment 1: The worksheet really did a good job breaking down solutions into different categories that I did not thinking of before doing the worksheet. During my process of answering the questions I came to figure out that there were certain solutions that could have been molded together in order for a better and more effective solution could have been made. For example, when writing my HCP I new that proposing a psychological solution was going to be part of my Advocacy paper but when I encountered the part of the worksheet above which made me write down existing solutions, legal and psychological ones, I started thinking that incorporating these two categories together as possible solutions I was able to advocate a more promising solution. I was also able to use the previous solutions that I found and realize analyzed their limitations and how certain causes of the problems are related to one another and how to end those causes they might also require more than one type of solution in order to solve it. For example, when I was working on this worksheet a different part asked about the cause of the problem, which mine were low self esteem because of the stereotype but I also wrote down that because of the low self esteem it makes women less likely for them to get a job, making it more easier for them to be stereotyped. So when I was working on the solution part I was able to think about how having a legal solution (creating new laws that lead welfare mothers to jobs) was also going offer a psychological solution (having longer lasting jobs=higher self esteem).

Advocacy Sources Analysis Worksheet

What did you learn from this exercise that would help you write your Advocacy Essay?

 -I learned to pay more attention to the terms that I encounter in scholarly articles and that I should include them. I also learned that one solution from a perspective of a social science may work better if is accompany by another solution from a different field.This worksheet helped me narrow the solutions that I have researched. The questions were very helpful. I was able to analyze the scholarly articles even more in depth with the questions in mind. For the multimodal part the questions were very helpful as well because even though I have included multimodal in my previous drafts with the worksheet I was able to ask myself how this video/picture actually relate to the solution I am advocating.

 How do you plan to refine your research in order to identify a promising solution?

 -I will try to find more precise search terms that will help me find more articles that have tried to advocate a similar solution to mine or a solution already proposed in one part of the city that might also work for the overall country/place (like for example job laws).

 How do you think about your audience differently after having completed this worksheet?

 -I feel like the worksheet gave me a better understanding of the type of audience that I will be addressing in my advocacy project.

 How do you think about yourself as an author differently after having completed this worksheet?

 -After I have completed this worksheet I feel that I need find more precise information in regard in the solution that I want to advocate instead of only writing about the solution’s surface (in general). This worksheet has also helped me in use all the resources that I have already like the footnotes to find new terms that will lead me to the precise information that I am looking for.

 How do you think differently now about using the language of a given field in order to reach a particular audience to solve a problem?  Where and how do you plan to directly address your audience in your Advocacy essay?

 -I will plan to directly address throughout my essay since I will advocate a solution in that field. I will use social science terms that will try to explain why the solution that I am advocating will result for beneficial also since I am trying to advocate the creation of new jobs I will find more information regarding that solution and will also try to use economic terms.

What are your plans for citing, quoting, using, and analyzing your sources to help you articulate a solution to the problem?

 -Well I really want to go more in depth with analyzing the articles that I have about the previous solutions that have been proposed but have unfortunately not worked because I want to give my audience a better understanding of why the solution that I am advocating will work. I also believe that the more sources and information I input into my essay the more credible I will seem to be.

 How will you refine your advocacy argument using what you have discovered here?

 -Overall, I will focus more on the solution that I am trying to advocate and find more information about why it is more beneficial. In my previous drafts I have not focused on that so really understanding the type of solution is being advocate in the sources that I have found and in whose perspective it is from (social science, hard science, humanities, and fine arts).

How do you plan to revise the articulation of the solution you are advocating?

 -Overall, I think that this worksheet helped me think of a different way of how to articulate my essay. For example, I know now that including the research terms that social science researcher use will help my paper appeal to them. Also, I feel like using terms associating with the type of solution that I will be advocating will help me understand the solution even more and the research that has been conducted to see whether or it has had a positive effect/will work or if it has a negative effect/will not work.

Comment 2:  The screenshot above shows the part of the Advocacy Source Analysis that helped me redefine my solutions by paraphrasing the solutions of the article I was consulting in my Advocacy essay. By actually stating the solutions that were proposed by the scholars that I had researched, it really helped me analysis what solution I was going to advocate for my Advocacy and whether or not those sources were going to be helpful. In addition, the questions at the end of the worksheet helped me think about other things, such as the part of the social science section that asked about certain social science terms that I did not really pay attention to when I read the sources for the first time. The questions also helped me become aware of my audience which in previous drafts I wasn't aware of  but with the help of this worksheet I was able to become aware of not only that but also about specific terms in regard of which type of journal I was reading. For example, after this worksheet I was able to use words like longitudinal data in my essay.

Library Orientation Worksheet

What have you learned about library research in general, your topic in particular, any especially useful discoveries of sources, and/or the relationship between your own research ideas and the research others have already conducted on your topic

(*)With the library orientation that we had I learned more about the actual library website. Before I kind of had an idea of what I was able to find in the website and if I had any questions the website had online chat available with librarians. However, I was not aware of the other helpful resources that the website contained. I was completely unaware about what Antpac and Melvyl were. Learning about these two data bases were very helpful because it makes researching about my topic a bit easier and faster with the search keywords. Also, it gives me the opportunity to have tons of information at the tips of my finger. Even though the topic example that we used at the library orientation was not very similar to my topic it did give me an idea of what kind of specific keywords I should use when trying to find articles. The instructor was helpful in taking us step by step how the data bases worked and gave us tips on how to determine if the article that I have found is a scholarly article or not, something that I was not very sure about.  When researching about my topic I found other causes of why there is a lot of African American recipients on welfare that I did not know before and that helped my narrow my topic a bit more by focusing on the level of education that African American women have. Also how the issue of education connects to another cause and that’s the cause of not being able to find a job as easier if  African American women were to have more education.

Comment 3: The library orientation worksheet was helpful for the HCP because it served as an outline of what type of research I needed to do prior writing my HCP. For example, it facilitated the research process by asking specific questions on the scholarly sources I had researched. In the screenshot above it shows that part 2 focused on listing 5 sources and listing them based on which ones were the most helpful. Also we had to explain why they were the most helpful. By asking specific questions like these I was able to use the worksheet when I needed a brief description about the source or when I wanted to see which sources were the most helpful because since I had already wrote the reason why they were helpful or had ranked them in order it was easier for me to go back to the worksheet when wanting to find that specific source. I chose this specific section to screenshot because it was the most helpful section that I turned to when I was beginning to write my HCP. Since I had more than 5 sources that I took a look at before writing my HCP I lost track of the ones that I found the most useful. So looking back at this worksheet, in particular this section, helped refresh my mind. In addition, the questions that was asked at the end of the worksheet just helped me reflect what I learned by doing the whole worksheet and think about certain part of the worksheet that were going to be the most helpful ones when I was going to start to write my HCP.