Tiff Davis English 102: October 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Chapter 16

Chapter 16 - Writing with Style
Write concisely
- Remove unnecessary modifiers
- Remove unnecessary introductory phrases
- Eliminate stock phrases ex. pg. 256
Use active and passive voice effectively
- Active indicates the who/what did something, passive does not
Adopt a consistent point of view
- First person: I, we
- Second person: you
- Third person: she, he, it, one, they ect...
Choose your words carefully
- Formality
- Specialized language
- Variety
How to Polish my style?
Vary your sentence structure
- Statements
- Questions
- Commands
- Exclamations
Create effective transitions ex. pg. 271
Introduce authors effectively using attributions
Avoid sexist language
Consult a good handbook
Read Widely

This chapter delineates how to effectively choose and use an effective writing style based on what I am writing about and who my audience is. It lists several detailed examples of ways to eliminate unnecessary words/phrases ect. as well as gives me alternatives to using that type of 'filler' language. I will use this when I am finalizing/editing my paper, and potentially while writing it if I get stuck somewhere along the way and am not sure what language to use.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Annotated bibliography 5 sources

Tiffany Davis

English 102

10/28/2014

Annotated Bibliography

Koss, Lorelei. "Sustainability in a Differential Equations Course: A Case Study of Easter Island." International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science & Technology 42.4 (2011): 545-553. Computer Source. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

This article takes a mathematical approach to Easter Island by using simple differential equations to investigate sustainability issues. Koss is a professor in the department of mathematics and science at Dickenson College. In order to teach differential equations with a real world scenario, Koss delineates various potential causes of the collapse of Easter Island, and uses differential equations to analyze them. I will use this source to show how disease may have contributed to Easter Island’s collapse.

Hamilton, Sue, Mike Seager Thomas, and Ruth Whitehouse. "Say It with Stone: Constructing with Stones on Easter Island." World Archaeology 43.2 (2011): 167-190. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

This Source exams the stone statues constructed on Easter Island. Sue Hamilton, Mike Seager Thomas, and Ruth Whitehouse work at the institute of archaeology at University College in London. The three authors examine what kinds of stone the Islanders used, how they used them, and the meaning the statues had to the people on Easter Island. I will use this article to show that the availability of pine trees increasingly declined from AD 1500 and was partially due to the introduction of these famous statues. This article does not go as in depth as I need, however, it also includes various maps of the island that I may use as a visual aid in my own document.

Stevenson, Christopher M., et al. "Prehistoric and Early Historic Agriculture at Maunga Orito, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile." Antiquity 80.310 (2006): 919-936. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

This article delineates the different farming/agricultural methods used on Easter Island, how they developed over time, and ways they adapted to circumstances such as deforestation. Christopher M. Stevenson is from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Thomas Jackson is from Pacific Legacy, both Andreas Mieth and Hans-Rudolf Bork are from the University of Kiel, and Thegn N. Ladefoged is from the University of Aukland. These five authors examine agricultural practices starting with the first settlers on Easter Island by examining soil profiles, carbon dating samples, and inspecting various remnants of their civilization throughout the Island. This article is not as useful for my argument as I thought it would be, though I can use this information to show how the Islanders adapted to their degrading environment.

Flenley, John, Paul Bahn. “Conflicting Views of Easter Island.” Rapa Nui Journal 21.1

(2007): 11-13. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

John Flenley and Paul Bahn scrutinize Paul Rainbird and Benny Peiser’s articles regarding the causes of Easter Island’s collapse. John Flenley is an Emeritus professor in biogeography, and a retired professor from Massey University. Paul Bahn is an archaeologist with a PHD from the University of Cambridge. They thoroughly oppose Rainbird and Peiser’s articles that state Easter Island’s collapse was primarily due to visits from Eastern European’s which resulted in the spread of disease and slave trafficking. Flenley and Bahn argue that the community was collapsing even before those incidences due to the deforestation and other effects of the Islander’s inhabitance/practices on that Island. I will use this article to show opposing viewpoints regarding the collapse of Easter Island, and to support my argument that it was deforestation and the islander’s practices that resulted in the collapse of their society, not external factors.

Diamond, Jared. “Easter Island Revisited.” Science, New Series 317 (2006): 1692-1694. American Association for the Advancement of Science. JSTOR. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California. This is one of several written works by Diamond that I will be referring to. In this particular article Diamond examines deforestation on Easter Island by showing how it occurred and what the results were. By identifying 78,000 bits of burnt wood from radiocarbon-dated ovens/fire pits Diamond is able to show what species of trees were exterminated and when. This article will be incredibly useful for my argument that the deforestation of the Island was one of the main causes of Easter Island’s collapse.

Hughes, J.D. “Easter Island: Model for Environmental History?” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 14.2 (2003): 77. Proquest Research Library. Web. 7 Oct 2014.

J.D. Hughes is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Denver Colorado. In this article Hughes delineates how Easter Island began by stating approximately when the first inhabitants arrived and the key plants/animals they brought with them. He then gives a brief summary of their life on the island, describes the deforestation and its effects, and continues on to examine when the European’s arrived and what their effect was on the Island’s inhabitants. I will use this article primarily as a timeline of what happened when so that I can show deforestation was the main cause of the Island’s collapse. I will also use this article to show what the Islanders had in the beginning, because without knowing what they started with, my audience wouldn’t understand what they destroyed.

Hunt, Terry L. “Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island.” The American Scientist. (2014). Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

Terry L. Hunt is a professor at the University of Hawai’i. In this article he argues that Easter Island collapsed due to the European’s introduction of disease and rats. Hunt attempts to discredit Diamond’s works on Easter Island without backing up any of his claims with evidence. This article was written for popularity, not for its scholarly merits. I will be opposing his view points with my argument. I will use this article to show some of the controversy regarding Easter Island’s collapse.

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - using sources effectively
How to use source information and primary techniques for integrating source information
How to use sources to accomplish purpose
- as a quotation, paraphrase, or summary
- as numerical information
- as illustrations such as images, audio, video or animals
- Introduce an idea or argument
- Contrast ideas or arguments
- Provide evidence for your argument
- Unsupported assertion - no evidence provided
- Supported assertion - Evidence provided in first sentence
- Align your argument with an authority
- Define a concept, illustrate a process, or clarify a statement
- Set a mood
- Provide an example
- Amplify or qualify a point
How can I integrate sources into my draft?
- Identify sources
- Use attributions and in-text citations (lists common attributions pg. 252)
- Provide a context
- Quote strategically
- Use partial, complete and block quotations
- Modify quotation as appropriate (pg. 104-105)
- Punctuate quotations correctly (pg. 254-255)
- Paraphrase information, ideas, and arguments
- Summarize
- Entire source
- Specific ideas and information from a source
- A group of sources
- Present numerical data
- Use images, audio, videos and animations
How should I document my sources?
- Choose a documentation system (MLA, APA, Chicago, CSE)
- Provide in-text references and publication information
- check for unattributed sources in document
- distinguish between your ideas and your source's ideas

This chapter will aid me in integrating my sources into my paper. I put page numbers by specific information I think will really be useful for me, so that I can refer back to the text as I am writing. This chapter goes into depth about how to use sources/quotations ect. which will help ensure I do not use them improperly and accidentally plagiarize something. It also shows me how to better incorporate my sources into my argument so that my writing contains supported assertions and my work is not discredited due to lack of evidence, or lack of properly used evidence.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Evaluating Sources
Evaluate relevance to determine whether a sources information will help you accomplish your writing goals and address your readers needs, interests, values and beliefs
Evaluate evidence
- Is there enough
- Is it the right kind
- Is it used fairly
- Are their sources provided for evidence
Evaluate author
- Are they knowledgeable
- What are their affiliations
- How do their biases effect information, ideas, and arguments
Evaluate Publisher
- Where is more information on the publisher in question
- How do their biases effect information, ideas and arguments
Evaluate Timeliness - Does the publication effect the reliability of the sources information
Evaluate comprehensiveness
Evaluate Genre - Consider genre in your decisions about sources
- Style of writing
- How evidence is used
- Is it organized
- Citation style
- Document design
Evaluate relevance and credibility of digital sources such as websites and blogs, social networking sites, email lists, discussion forums, wikis
Evaluate relevance and accuracy of field sources
Use Evaluation to trim a working Bibliography

This Chapter is very important because whether a person chooses relevant credible sources for their paper can be a huge determining factor in how well they did. Knowing how to evaluate sources will be useful for creating a final works cited from my working bibliography and for determining which sources I will use primarily. Using only the best sources that I have evaluated will help me do a better job picking out evidence, information, and arguments that address my goals and my readers needs, interests, values and beliefs.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Research Proposal

Tiffany Davis

English 102

21 October 2014

Research Proposal

Introduction:

Easter Island has long been a topic of study for scientists around the world. How the people arrived on Easter Island, where they came from, what they brought with them, how they lived, the culture of the island, the famous rock sculptures they built, and how/why their culture declined. There are many aspects of Easter Island that have been researched thoroughly by numerous scientists and other academics. My research paper however, will focus on the decline of Easter Island. Why did the Island’s society collapse? What were the primary geographic causes of Easter Island’s collapse? What are the differing opinions and studies on those causes? Was it the people, or other environmental factors that led to the decline of Easter Island’s civilization? How was their culture related to the collapse of their society? There is much debate as to where the people came from, as well as to what were the key elements of Easter Island’s societies’ collapse. Looking at the primary experts on Easter Island’s collapse and comparing the different arguments will help me show how and why Easter Island collapsed.

Review of Literature

Sources so far include a book written in 2006, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive by Jarred Diamond. It reviews various societies in history that have collapsed, and focuses a great deal on Easter Island as an example of “Ecocide.” An earlier book from 2005 also by Jarred Diamond called Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years also refers to Easter Islands collapse as well as its establishment. Similarly a book by Thor Heyerdahl The Kon-Tiki Expedition: Raft Across the South Seas written in 1950 studies the colonization of Easter Island. His theories however, are believed to be incorrect and will be contrary to those hypothesis presented in both of Jarred Diamond’s written works.

Another source will be J.D. Hughes with his article “Easter Island: Model for Environmental History?” Hughes delves into the resources that the Easter Island inhabitants destroyed and how that led to their downfall. Barzin Pakandam goes in a similar direction to Hughes with his working paper in 2009 “Why Easter Island Collapsed: An Answer for an Enduring Question.” In Pakandam’s article he begins with how Easter Island was discovered, then moves on to discuss what resources they had before the fall, and finally goes on to state what causes he believes were most influential in the collapse of Easter Island’s isolated society. Christopher M. Stevenson wrote a scholarly article “Prehistoric and Early Historic Agriculture at Maunga Orito, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile,” which provides information on how the inhabitants of Easter Island were using their resources as well as several images of the island to show where and what resources were depleted. Knowing how Easter Island used their resources and created more will help show my audience what they had available on the Island. David K. Foot’s article, “Easter Island; A Case Study in Non-sustainability,” from 2006 also delves into the topic of resource depletion. Foot’s article focuses a great deal on how the use of wood to move stone statues contributed to Easter Island’s deforestation and thus collapse. Sue Hamilton, Mike Seager Thomas, and Ruth Whitehouse wrote an article “Say it with Stone: Constructing with Stones on Easter Island,” which delineates how the people of Easter Island built and moved their giant stone statues. This source will tie into the causes of deforestation that Foot brings up in his article.

Terry L. Hunt and Carl P. Lipo wrote an article in 2009, “Revisiting Rapa Nui (Easter Island) “Ecocide” 1,” in which they discuss Jarred Diamond’s research of Easter Island, as well as other experts in the field. Hunt and Lipo discuss a collection of recent publications on Easter Island in general in order to form their argument that although deforestation and ecological catastrophe contributed to Easter Island’s collapse, that the Island was not truly doomed until European contact resulted in disease and slave trading. They state that “Deforestation and contact-induced demographic collapse were separate in time and causation,” (601). Joshua Pollard, Alistair Paterson, and Kate Welham wrote an article “Te Miro O’one: The Archeology of Contact on Rapa Nui (Easter Island),” which will be used as a source to show what contact people had with Easter Island inhabitants before the collapse of the island’s civilization.

Plan to Collect Information

In addition to the sources I have collected thus far, I will be asking my geography professor Dr. James McDougal for a personal interview regarding Easter Island. He has studied the topic in depth and has mentioned that at some point he will be lecturing us on it in class. This interview I hope will help me narrow the focus of my research and potentially provide me with more sources. I am hoping to find more visual aids throughout scholarly articles or via google images to go along with my paper once I have established an outline for my paper. There is an article by J.R. Flenley and P. Bahn “Conflicting Views of Easer Island,” that I will also be looking up via Google or Academic Search Premier; if it is not in either of those locations I will look in Proquest. This article I hope will help me delineate more opposing arguments. Kon-Tiki by Jarred Diamond is coming via inter library loan (though I have read it already), and both Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jarred Diamond are coming from the Bremerton Hazelwood Library (both of which I have also already read).

Project Timeline

This coming week I plan to finish collecting my sources. My last book should arrive by next Wednesday October 29^th. On Monday October 27^th I will be meeting with my geography professor Dr. James McDougal to interview him on the subject, so this weekend I will be compiling questions for him. October 30^th I will be reviewing all of my sources, taking notes, and highlighting key arguments to create my thesis and highlight key voices and arguments. By November 4^th I will have compiled my annotated bibliography. By the first week of November I will also be creating an outline for my paper, in order to keep it organized, and gathering more visual aids. By November 13^th I will have created my literature review of at least 20 sources. November 20^th I will have my final draft of my outline, Rationale, and Abstract finished. November 25^th I will have completed my rough draft of my paper so that I can participate in the peer editing lab. December 5^th I will turn in my final paper.

Works Cited

Brander, James A., and M. Scott Taylor. "The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use." American Economic Review 88.1 (1998): 119-138. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. London: Penguin Books. 2006. Print.

----. Guns, Germs, and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years. London: Vintage, 2005, 1997. Print.

----. “Easter Island Revisited.” Science, New Series 317 (2006): 1692-1694. American Association for the Advancement of Science. JSTOR. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

Finney, Ben. “Voyage to Polynesia’s Land’s End.” Antiquity 75.287 (2001): 172-81. Proquest Research Library. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.

Flenley, John, and Kevin Butler. “Respect Versus Contempt for Evidence: Reply to Hunt and Lipo.” Rapa Nui Journal 21.2 (2007): 98-104. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.\

Flenley, John, Paul Bahn. “Conflicting Views of Easter Island.” Rapa Nui Journal 21.1
(2007): 11-13. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

Foot, K. David. “Easter Island; A Case Study in Non-sustainability.” Greener Management International 48 (2006): 11-20. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Oct 2014.

Good, David H., and Rafael Reuveny. “The Fate of Easter Island: The Limits of Resource Management Institutions.” Ecological Economics 58.3 (2006): 473-490. Science Direct. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

Heyerdahl, Thor. The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas. London: Allen and Unwin, ltd, 1950. Print.

Hughes, J.D. “Easter Island: Model for Environmental History?” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 14.2 (2003): 77. Proquest Research Library. Web. 7 Oct 2014.

Hunt, Terry L. “Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island.” The American Scientist. (2014). Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

Hunt, Terry L., and Carl P. Lipo. “Revisiting Rapa Nui (Easter Island); ‘Ecocide’ 1.” Pacific Science 63.4 (2009): 601-16. Proquest Research Library. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.

----. “Chronology, Deforestation, and ‘Collapse:’ Evidence vs. Faith in Rapa Nui Prehistory.” Rapa Nui Journal 21.2 (2007): 85-97. Academia. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

Koss, Lorelei. "Sustainability In A Differential Equations Course: A Case Study Of Easter Island." International Journal Of Mathematical Education In Science & Technology 42.4 (2011): 545-553. Computer Source. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

Martinsson-Wallin, Helene, and Susan J. Crockford. “Early Settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island).” Asian Perspectives 40.2 (2001): 244-78. Proquest Research Library. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.

Pakandam, Barzin. “Why Easter Island Collapsed: An Answer for an Enduring Question.” Economic History working Papers, 117/09. Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. (2009). Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

Pollard, Joshua, Alistair Paterson, and Kate Welham. "Te Miro O'one: The Archaeology of Contact on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)." World Archaeology 42.4 (2010): 562-580. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

Rainbird, Paul. "A Message for Our Future? The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Ecodisaster and Pacific Island Environments." World Archaeology 33.3 (2002): 436-451. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Oct 2014.

Stricker, Harding. "Easter Island: A Case Study for Stewardship." International Congregational Journal 9.1 (2010): 87-102. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

Trachtman, Paul. “The Secrets of Easter Island.” Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian (2002). Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - Searching for information with print resources
Browse the stacks - most libraries use the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal System which are organized based on subject
Look through books and periodicals. If they don't have what you need you can ask it to be recalled (returned and held for you), or you can ask to get it through an inter-library loan.
Consult works cited in periodicals to find key voices and other sources
Consult bibliographies to find sources in reference rooms
Types of Bibliographies - Trade bibliographies, general bibliographies, or specialized bibliographies
Consult cumulative bibliographies or bibliographies of bibliographies to find more sources pertaining to your topic
Consult indexes - periodical indexes, indexes of materials in books, pamphlet indexes, government document indexes, or citation indexes

This chapter is all about how to gather more sources in print to aid with your/my research topic. I can use this to help me find more books, articles ect on Easter Island. I already have a variety of scholarly articles but I need more variation of my sources. I didn't know there were bibliographies of bibliographies, which I think will be very useful to helping me find articles that are relevant to my topic in a quick efficient manner.

Working Bibliography 20 min sources

Tiffany Davis

10/16/14

English 102 Bibliography

Working Bibliography

Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. London: Penguin Books. 2006. Print.

----. Guns, Germs, and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years. London: Vintage, 2005, 1997. Print.

----. “Easter Island Revisited.” Science, New Series 317 (2006): 1692-1694. American Association for the Advancement of Science. JSTOR. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

Finney, Ben. “Voyage to Polynesia’s Land’s End.” Antiquity 75.287 (2001): 172-81. Proquest Research Library. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.

Flenley, John, and Kevin Butler. “Respect Versus Contempt for Evidence: Reply to Hunt and Lipo.” Rapa Nui Journal 21.2 (2007): 98-104. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.