First, I will discuss my thoughts about the Bloch reading. Although Bloch mentioned that Generation 1.5 students (this phrase refers to immigrant students; there is a growing literature on these students) may have different backgrounds from international students who come from areas where literacy is widespread, I felt that what Abdullah contributes to his blog in Bloch’s article is similar to how we run our blog for this class. If you asked me whether my academic writing skill has improved by posting my reflection article every week, my answer is “Yes.” First, I have to read academic articles, and learn the new terminology and knowledge for each article. Next, I need to digest the articles and post my reflection. From the process of reading to distributing, I am doing not only the critical thinking, but also summarizing my ideas about the articles in academic writing. In addition, Bloch claims that blogs have often been used in content area courses to foster a collaborative process of making meaning. I enjoyed looking at the feedback from my classmates and professors. Sometimes, their feedback or suggestions lead me to another level of thinking and perspectives. This interaction helps both sides, the author and the audiences, to communicate in the blogosphere, and reaches the goal: it allows students to voice their own opinions. Therefore, I am pretty sure that this training provides me an opportunity to compose academic writing.
As for plagiarism, I have no exception that I do not clearly understand what plagiarism means. Even though I see the rule of “plagiarism” on the syllabus which I received for each semester, I have never spent time on it. Therefore, Bloch brings out a good concept: it is necessary to understand how plagiarism is viewed in the university. The writers will not be able to establish the validity of claims in academic writing until they fully understand the importance and details of plagiarism.
The only difference I see between Abdullah and me is that I learned “formal” English during my education, so I do not have trouble with “vernacular literacy” in my blog. In other words, I do not even clearly know how to distinguish between what is vernacular or professional forms of literacy. Hence, I do not feel the boundary between the blog (more vernaculerform) and the classroom assignment (more professional form). Is it good or bad if the English learner do not know the differences?
I like your point! I admit that maintaining a blog gives me more opportunity for writing in English. However, I assume that whether my academic writing skills is imporved or not via blog depends on the purpose of the blog. The main purpose of Abdullah's blog is to practice academic writing skills. Will it different if a blog is only for more personal and more informal purposes, like what's happened to us, something good or bad, or just jotting down what's in our mind? Personally speaking, I prefer free writing in my blog .
回覆刪除Yes, I agree with Yi, it's a matter of purpose--you've taken the blog assignment as a way to improve your understanding of the material, by summarizing and reflecting, where others might see it as a more open-ended forum. One of the strengths of blogs (and responsible graduate level students) is that people can, to a degree, make what they want to out of them.
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