PB2B

                                                           Pb2B      

  Like a good boxer playing many good moves to hit his opponent, a good basketball player completing a series of excellent moves to have a score, a good article must have some “moves” to convey its thesis clearly and attract and persuade readers. During this quarter, we read the “How To Read Like A Writer” in the course reading and “The pancake Menu’s Inside Scoop” in the class. There are many similar  “moves” in these two good articles. By observing the specific “moves” in these two papers, one can observe that the awareness of “moves” not only helps the reader understand the writers’ intentions, but also helps readers to achieve the writers’ effective methods to explain their arguments.

  The first “move” of both papers is to use a abbreviation to represent a long term that frequently appear in the article. In the Pancake Menu’s Inside Scoop (Pancake), the writer use “IHOP” to represent the International House of Pancakes and “OHOP” to represent the Original House of Pancakes from the second appearance of the names of the pancake shops. In How to Read Like a Writer (HRLW), the writer use RLW to represent the term Read like a Writer. By using the abbreviations, the writer makes the articles shorter and reduce the possibility that readers would feel boring when they saw some long terms or names repeatedly. 

  The second similar move is to introduce the background of the paper. In Pancake, the author introduces what most people think about genre at the very beginning of the article instead of exploring the features of the menus. In HRLW, the writer firstly introduce his basic life-situation, including the year, where he graduated, his job, etc, instead of explaining How To Read Like a Writer at first. Adding a background before unrolling the body content can not only attract readers but also make the articles more credible. After all, it is more interesting to read a story than to read a formal and rigid argument.

  Thirdly, while reasoning the arguments, both authors conclude a thesis statement at the start of each paragraph. This is the most excellent “move” I appreciate. In the Pancake, while the author conclude that three menus are qualified to the genre “menu” after exploring the features of the three menus separately, he writes “After investigating the features of each literary piece, one can see although they differ in some ways, these three “literary genres” are all qualified to belong in the genre of menus.” at the beginning of the sixth paragraph. Actually, you can almost find a thesis statement at the beginning of each paragraph in both articles. This simple “move ” can make a paper more well-organized and readers can understand the cores of the paper more easily.

  The fourth move is to use a question as a transition. In the Pancake, the author writes “Yes, they are all similar, but why are they different?” at the end of the sixth paragraph. Obviously, the author explored the similarities of three menus before this question and will observe the differences of three menus after this question. However, it is abrupt to turn to the differences from the similarities. This “move” makes the structure more coherent. Similarly, in the HRLW, the author writes “What are the advantages and disadvantages?” at the beginning of the second paragraph (page 73). Obviously, the author explores the advantages and disadvantages in the next several paragraphs. Using a question as a transition is a good way to turn to a new point from a previous one. Anyway, compared to a formal statement without any emotion, a question can arise the interests of readers.

  Last but not least, both authors use parenthetical citations. In other words, both authors put the source of each quote between a pair of parentheses right after the quote. This simple “move” can increase the credibility of the papers. Anyway, sources of any information represent “truth” to some extent.

  In a summary, there are 5 moves that both authors apply that I appreciate and will use in my papers in the future: abbreviations, background, a thesis statement at the beginning of each paragraph, using a question as a transition, and parenthetical citations.

PB2A

                                                                   PB2A

  We found the conventions of the papers generated from the SCIgen website. However, as we all know, the papers are actually unqualified academic computer science papers. This leads to the question—what are the true features of the science papers? I found a true peer-reviewed academic computer science publication, Quantum Cybernetics and Complex Quantum Systems Science: A Quantum Connectionist Exploration, on the library website of the ucsb to explore its true conventions. Although the papers from the SCIgen website have several similarities with the true paper—they all have a big title, an abstract of the paper, clear structure, many statistics and graphs, and references, they have more pivotal differences.
   The first difference that showed up is the length of the paper. The true academic papers usually have more than 10 pages. However, the papers from SCIgen program have only about at most 2-3 pages. The reason for the difference of their lengths is the second feature of the true paper—detailed information. The contents of the papers from SCIgen program seem to be detailed, containing many graphs and statistics. However, if we have a more close look at them, the database information is just conclusion. There are no deductions or calculus. The SCIgen program just gives a surface-level conclusion about the graphs and statistic. In contrast, the true Computer Science paper has more detailed and complicated deductions and calculus. The intricate calculus would occupy a big part of the length of the paper and make the paper more academic and convincing. r
   Thirdly, the true academic papers always contain a complicated number called DOI. This number is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency (the International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet. Any fake paper would not have this number.
   The fourth difference is the structure. The titles of each paragraph in the SCIgen papers would be Introduction, Methodology, Implementation, Results, and References. Compared to the hollow titles of each paragraph, the structure of the true paper would be more specific—Introduction, Quantum Cybernetics and Quantum Computation, Quantum Computation and Quantum Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Artificial Neural Networks as Autonomous Quantum Computing Systems, Complex Quantum Systems and Quantum Connectionism, and References. The titles of the true academic paper of each paragraph directly and explicitly tell people the kernel of each paragraph. Contrary to the specific structure, the titles of the SCIgen papers can be used for any articles, containing no useful information. 
   Additionally, the true computer science paper gives more detailed information about the authors at the end of the first page—phone number, email, address, financial disclosures, date of received and accepted and so on. The detailed information about authors would never appear on the papers from SCIgen program because the authors are all fake.
   What is more, the tone of the true academic papers differs from that of the papers from SCIgen. The papers from SCIgen program often use the word “we”, like “We now discuss our performance analysis”, “Our implementation of our methodology is large-scale”, and so on. This word appears on the true academic papers at a very low frequency because academic papers emphasize the true science analysis. There is no need to use the word “we”, “I”, or “You”. For example, at the very beginning of the true academic paper, “The current work is aimed at the expansion of connectionist-based quantum cybernetics”. The authors would not say “our current work”. However, the papers from SCIgen papers would be more inclined to use “our current work”. The facts in the papers are all scientific truth. These personal words would reduce the reliability of the academic paper.
  This rhetorical feature—no use of personal words—strikes me most because an academic paper must eliminate any personal bias. In other words, the academic papers should be completed without emotions. This absolute focus on the truth strikes me most.
 
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                            PB1B

   The SCIgen is a website that automatically creates random Computer Science research papers. I tried several random names and found how amazing this websites is!  Firstly, the papers generated from this program have big titles followed by the names of authors you input. Secondly, the structure of the papers is very clear which consists of 7 parts. For example, when you entered author bundle A, the structure is introduction, framework, implements, results, related work, conclusions, and references. When you entered author bundle B, the structure is introduction, related work, event–drive symmetries, implementation, results, conclusion and reference. When you enter author bundle C, the structure is introduction, methodology, implementation, experimental evaluation, related work, conclusion and reference. As we see from these 3 examples, the structure of the papers is all the same: introduction about the research, 3 parts to explain, conclusion, and reference. What’s more, each paper has lots of statistics and graphs to support its argument. Last but not least, every paper contains many terms that common people never heard about, such that API, JIT-compiled ML, XML and so on.   As a conclusion, structure, statistics and graphs, and terms are 3 significant features of Computer Science paper.

  Pandyland is a website that randomly generates comic strips. From the experiments I have done, I noticed that each comic strip consists of 3 pictures. Two cartoon boys, a yellow-haired one and a brown- haired one, and sometimes followed by their “stupid” conversation, comprises each picture. In my mind, this comic strips generator is not doing well. It can only generate 3-pictures comic strips and there are only 2 simple boys that are not designed delicately. However, this program stills shows the 3 basic characteristics of comic strips: several pictures, cartoon figures and their conversation.

  Memegenerator is a website that can creates memes. To obtain a meme, first of all, you need a distinctive character to use as the background. It could be a person, a cartoon figure, or even an animal. Compared with a character that I consider as a carrier, the “notes” that you add to explain what this character is doing or feeling is more important. Not only because these notes are all capitalized, but also for the fact that it is the “notes” that actually express your own feelings. For example, you can add different notes on the same picture. The point would always be the capitalized notes, not the characters. In a summary, a meme has 2 pivotal conventions: a distinctive character and short “notes” following the characters.

  Here is the most exciting moment--- An additional genre generator! I found a very interesting poem generator (thinkzone.wlonk.com/PoemGen). This amazing website can create poems as long as you enter several nouns or adjectives. I tried several times to create the “beautiful” poems and summarized the conventions of a poem. It is usually short. One sentence often consists of less than 10 words, and has a rhythm at the end of each sentence. What is more, it has a specific sentence pattern that would repeat all through the poem.

  These websites have a deep dig into the genre. They studied the features of genre and use the computer technology to generate a random one that fits all the conventions. Besides, they always list the conventions of the genre in order to show the most core heart of the genre. Last but not least, these websites help people understand genre by giving them a chance to create a specific genre by their own. The chance to do something by your own is far more important than just obtaining it from other indirect channels. So, give the people who made these websites the most sincerely greetings.

PB1A

                                                          Announcements

    The definition of an announcement is a public and typically formal statement about a fact, occurrence, or intention, from google dictionary. We are given lots of announcements all through our lives. When we were born, the hospitals give the birth announcements to prove new lives in this world. When we went to a long rest, hospitals would give us death announcements. And if we are lucky and hardworking enough, we may have a chance to give others announcements. Since we cannot escape announcements, let’s find the properties of announcements.

    As students, we receive university announcement emails very often. Checking these emails, we can find that most university announcements are either stating occurrence: Arts and lecture events presentation in downtown venues, concerts in Iv theatre, UCSB Alumni speak about their professions and give advice on interning, networking, and graduate school or stating facts, the expansion of the Financial Aid Advisors' Drop-In Office Hours Program, information about application for University Lobby Day. So, here is the most important core of an announcement---a fact or occurrence, the content of an announcement.

   What is more, the tone of an announcement to state its content is always authoritative. There are seldom questions, jokes, or even explains in an announcement. The reason for the authoritative tone of an announcement is the purpose of an announcement is to inform people of some authentic things that cannot be easily changed. As a result, announcements do not need to interpret or inquire anything. They just tell people what happened or what will happen or give you information about an event. Additionally, to be authoritative, an announcement must be sent by official channels. Government, Schools, Hospitals, or big companies are the common official channels from which an announcement is made. People are more inclined to believe them.

   Last but not least, timeliness is another pivotal characteristic of an announcement. Timeliness means the quality of arriving or being ready on time. All announcements must be posted at the correct time. In the stock market, companies make their announcements to inform all investors of any information that would influence the price of the stocks. For example, if Apple is making the Apple cars in factories and it did not make an official announcement until Apple cars have a number of sales. Apple may meet a big problem. This kind of action is considered as illegal and a deceit of investors by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Not only the companies should make announcements on time, but also the government should make latest announcements. I browsed many government announcements  websites and found that the UK government has the best announcements.(www.gov.uk/government/announcements). For example, there are 6 announcements all named by “Eric Pickles' update” by the Communities Secretary Eric. The UK government announcements are all updated as soon as possible. This helps to gain trust from UK people.

   To conclude, an announcement is a timely formal statement made from official channels to inform people of authentic facts in authoritative tone.