Thlog 5

    A tool I learned this week that can be useful in enhancing my writing is the italic.  Normally I would use italics for only titles because I didn't quite know where to put them and thought they had little use, but it turns out they can be used to “bring a dash of color” to my writing.  Also, I learned that they have another practical use, being that they can be used when referring to specific words.

    This week we also took a closer look at how different disciplines of study can study the same subject in totally different ways.  For example, when studying music, a historian can study the history of music, the economist can study the music industry, and the psychologist can study what effects music has on the brain, all while the philosopher studies what is music.  Also, I noticed there was a lot of bleeding over, like how psychology might study what certain chemicals in the brain do while biology might study what certain chemicals in the brain are.  I thought this was a very interesting how you can take almost anything and have several ways of studying it.  

    Something else we examined in class is “imrad.”  “Imrad” is a logical structure that almost all academic papers follow. This form takes the reader through the introduction, introduces the method, displays the results, analyses those results, and then discusses them, leaving the study open ended.  Academic writers often make this move because it works.  I think I can apply this to my own writing by taking the idea that form follows function, and making sure my essays and articles have a form that is logical for what I am trying to convey.

Another concept I learned about this week is the concept of “making moves.”  A definition that I think describes moves well is ‘something someone does to do something.’  the move made is the something that someone does, and the something they do is the motive to why the person of interest did the thing.  Knowing this, I realized articles and papers are full of moves writers specifically make, and that I, too, make moves of my own in my writing.  Also, when studying moves, it was interesting to see how moves have their own set of smaller moves that make up the move.  For example, the michael Jordan flying layup thing had its own moves, like getting the ball and jumping, that build into one big move.  Without those smaller moves, the layup would not be the same.