Research Proposal Comments

The comments I got, I think, are very helpful. And not just because it is the same professor who wrote them that will be grading this blog. Most of the comments were directed toward the same idea--I wasn't giving enough detail/I wasn't explaining myself well enough. 

They were helpful because even though I know what I'm talking about when I'm writing, sometimes you need a second reader to tell you where you missed a point...most likely a point you had in your head but never transferred to the paper. 

I guess a lot of what I wrote was based on the research I did, and while I knew the other details, a person who hadn't read those sources would be lost in the proposal. Other than a few smaller problems in my paper, that was the advice given: expand. Actually, that makes complete sense since when I was writing the proposal, I kept thinking to myself, 'I really feel like this isn't long enough, I'm not saying enough.' But while the solution I thought would be to add more sections, really, what I needed to do was add more into each section. 

Contemplations on the Essay

When we first brought up the topic of essays in class, I was a little nervous about that fact that the research we had done for the research proposal was supposed to be enough for our essay as well. For one thing...I think a lot of what I wrote in my research proposal was my own thoughts and ideas which I am thinking now would have a better place in my essay. So I'm not sure what to do about that.

 I think I'll probably repeat some of the same basic information that was in my research proposal, and then expand on my own personal opinion on the issue I was proposing. Also, I have a lot of personal experience with people with AS, so I think I could spice up an essay with stories and accounts of actual people I've met, so I can balance out the more scientific fact after fact after fact style that my research proposal used. I intend to try to appeal to a more everyday person and not pound them with statistics and other boring numbers.

Well...I guessed I answered my own question in my blog. I plan to write an essay with a good balance of facts and personal stories, to make the essay seem intellectual and researched but also make the audience care about what I have to say. 

Fall Break

It's been a long week! I can't wait to relax and de-stress over fall break!

What makes an essay an essay?

Well, I read all of these essays early since I will be away from a computer over fall break and needed to do the assignment now.

They were very interesting. When I first read the assignment on the 3-week planner, I thought they were all going to be boring scientific or historical essays. I thought that because my topic, Asperger’s Syndrome, is going to be very scientific, with a lot of facts and figures. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were all narrative style essays that were entertaining and also educational.

So that gets me into what I think make these pieces fall into the category of “essay.” As I was reading, I picked out a few similarities that I saw.

One, the styles were similar. There were a lot of action verbs—and therefore a lot of action. They were all extremely descriptive and really poetically written using devices like metaphors and similes. I was impressed by how descriptive they all were. The one example that I keep thinking about is the description in The Stunt Pilot when they flew through a cloud and in front of them was a huge mountain of red, iron-laden rock.

Another stylistic point I noticed was that there seemed to be a turning point in each essay. The best example is from Silent Dancing when it goes from describing her life and her home to talking about how she overheard her mother talking about an abortion and it scared her for the rest of her childhood.

A third characteristic of the three essays that I picked up on was that each had their own educational bits and pieces. Some put them in separately from the story, some within the story. For example, there would be a paragraph in Silent Dancing about Puerto Rican culture to explain what is going on in the story. Also, there would be technical terms specific to the topic that would be explained in the reading. Again, I Silent Dancing the word “la mancha” was explained to mean “the stain,” which had to do with looking and seeming like an immigrant. In The Stunt Pilot, there were technical terms that had to do with maneuvers in flying.

Last, each had a certain controversy or point that hooked in the reader. For Silent Dancing, it was the abortion story. For Ali in Havana it was his disease and his experience with Castro. In Stunt Pilot it was how the pilots, both the crop dusting ones and the stunt ones, accepted death as routine in their jobs. Some people may find other controversies they though were more interesting, but those are what did it for me.

So in conclusion, what I found that linked these writings together as essays were: 1)style (descriptive and action words), 2) turning point, 3) informative, 4) a way to hook the audience. 

Questions on pg. 99

1) I would like to determine what Tech should do concerning students with Asperger's Syndrome and the services they need. These services include instructing AS students on appropriate social behavior in college and possibly social activities for them to participate in. Also it would give the students what's called "academic coaching" (one on one help in classes from a trained professional in their disability) more often and with more classroom accommodations. 

2) I think my lit review is very good and leads to my question well. That is definitely a strength of my paper. I think a way I could make it better is by adding a section that shows the importance of my research--why what I'm doing needs to be done and how it will actually affect the organization that is funding me. 

3) I think I did pretty well acknowledging both sides of the argument, since that is a major part of what my research project is. Although I am choosing a side, I will be doing a lot of in depth research on both sides to give each a fair chance. 

4) If it turns out that AS students need extra services, then it is up to universities to implement the necessary services. My paper could be used as proof or guidance of why those services are necessary. It would specifically show what needs to be done, why, and how. However, if it turns out that I go against my hypothesis and decide students don't need these services and it really is too much hand-holding, then it will reaffirm to parents of AS students that everyone is on a level playing field with the services already provided by the department of services for students with disabilities. 

Literature Review

Literature Review

Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is a disorder on the Autism Spectrum that cripples a student in social interaction. However, the medical community only began to recognize AS about 20 years ago. Now that students with AS are reaching the age of university enrollment, colleges have to deal with a whole wave of students with a disorder that never needed special attention before(Smith, 2008).

As a result, certain organizations such as the Achieving in Higher Education with Autism and Developmental Disabilities (AHEADD)(Pharma Business Week, 2007) and College Living Experience (Lipka, 2006) have sprung up. These organizations are designed to help college-aged students adapt to the new environment that a 2 or 4-year university requires. These organizations provide social and academic advising to students on a weekly basis, giving students, for a price, extra help that the university services don’t provide.

The problem that arises is that in helping these students, the actual integrity of the college experience can be overlooked. When these organizations push for more and more alternative assignments and other kinds of special accommodations, the student may not be in reality be keeping up with the other students, no matter the grade he receives (Farrell, 2008).

This leads to the problem of having students in college who simply are not ready for university life. If a student in pushed through his 4 years of college by these programs and his parents, the integrity of his college degree and all others with it will have been compromised.

Some students, however, use these programs as simply a jump start toward their education, and only remain in the program for 1-2 years, and after this point are capable of finishing their degrees independently (Lipka, 2006). This seems like the ideal usage of these academic programs.

Another blatant problem with the programs still remains, however. These organizations can cost thousands of dollars per year (Farrell, 2008) (Lipka, 2006), creating a sort of elite class of disabled students within the university. Because these programs are not yet all covered by student loans, students with AS who do not have the money to participate in the programs have no way of having the same opportunity as students with AS from wealthier families (Lipka, 2006).

Bibliography

Farrell, E. (2008). Asperger's Confounds Colleges. . Chronicle of Higher Education , 51 (7), A35-A36.

Lipka, S. (2006). For the Learning Disabled, a Team Approach to College. Chronicle of Higher Education , 53 (17), A36-A37.

Pharma Business Week. (2007, December 10). Asperger's Syndrome; Autism U: As College Application Deadlines Near, Growing Adult Population Focuses on Higher Education. Pharma Business Week , p. 2.

Smith, C. (2008). Support Services for Students with Asperger's Syndrome in Higher Education. Academic Search Complete , 41 (3), 515-531.

A Research Topic?

So, as I've been reading through my research to write the literature review, I think I may have come up with a couple ideas for my research topic. I started out broadly, just researching anything that had to do with disabled students, physically or mentally, on college campuses. Then I narrowed it down to college students with Asperger's Syndrome. I think a good basic research question would be (I might be able to phrase it better later):

What are reasonable accommodations for AS students that do not compromise the college experience? 

a) Who should be responsible for funding these accommodations?