Curious Researcher - Blog #9

The writing process is almost over.  We have completed our rough drafts and are not beginning to revise them. The first step we have to take is seeing whether or not our voice is heard but not to loud in the essay.  We had to go over our highlighter with two highlighters and highlight our voice with one, and the sources voice with another. This let us clearly see where we needed to work.  When we were finished, we were asked to answer the following questions about who's voice dominated more.

What voice dominates?
They were both about even. The author’s voice was a little bit stronger in places than my own but for the most part, they were about evenly split.

Are you turning over too much of the text to your sources?
I think that personally I could have used my voice a little bit more than what I did.  Even though they were fairly evenly matched, in some places, it did sound like I was just repeating the sources.

Are you ignoring them and rattling on too much about what you think?
I don’t think I am rattling on too much.

Or does you source use seem appropriate to support your purpose?
I feel that the amount of factual information and personal opinion meshed together well.  

What do you notice about the pattern of your color?
The colors seemed to go back and forth a lot during the course of the paper.

Are you taking turns paragraph by paragraph with your sources or is your own analysis and commentary nicely blended within paragraphs?
From the looks of it, my own voice is blended within the paragraph.

Do you surround quoted passages with your own voice and analysis?
For the most part, inserted quotes are surrounded by my own thoughts. There are some that I either start a quote with my voice but don’t end with it.

Who wins the wrestling match?
It was a long hard struggle, but in the end, the sources won.