Bariah Qadeer, Week 1: Introductions, W14

I’m Bariah Qadeer and I’m in my second year of English & Professional Writing. I am also taking linguistic courses on the side because I am thinking of becoming an English teacher. That’s why I’m also interested in learning education and maybe psychology.

I remember in high school I used to find research a bit frustrating because I didn't know where to begin and what points would prove my arguments in a thesis essay. However, over the years I have overcome this frustration and I have realized that research can begin anywhere. Nonetheless, I still feel a little frustrated sometimes when I get a research assignment and so I want to get over this frustration completely! Prof. Bell made me realize that we all are researching everyday in different contexts which makes research important and I want to fine-tune my research skills through this course so that I can research effectively.

For school assignments I have used York’s Library database such as EBSCO and it has always helped in finding scholarly journals which are appropriate to use for assignments. However, I have never used management software like RefWorks or Zotero but I plan on using them for the podcast assignment. I have no experience with podcasts but I am still excited to create my own podcast because in high school I had to make my own documentary and I enjoyed the process. As I mentioned earlier that I have a little bit of frustration but I am also excited so it’ll balance out!

I am considering Under the Influence for the podcast assignment because I have taken Media classes in high school so I feel that I’ll be able to look at the techniques used and what the ad suggests about the advertising industry/culture in detail which will make an effective podcast. Also Lexicon Valley sounds interesting because I just took Discourse Analysis last semester so I think I’ll have a good scope on this topic. Discourse Analysis talked about linguistics but also about culture and so I think I’ll be able to make good connections between linguistics and culture on the word/phrase that I may choose to research.

I hope that we all have great podcasts in the end! J