Editing Meeting

Hey all,
In class we were discussing when we could all meet to kind of go over organization and editing before we have to show other people our rough draft on Wednesday. We really need to figure out when a meeting can happen... What can everyone do? Are the times we talked about still good with everyone? Just comment so we can figure it all out!
Thanks guys!

Google Scholar

After much frustration using JSTOR and Academic Search Premier, and lonely nights pining for Google (which we all know taps into the divine powers of all-knowing Zeus), I remembered a specialized search engine called Google Scholar.  It searches everything from scholarly journals to law opinions.  Most results are accessible if done through the Marriot Library.

google.com/scholar

Working as a group

Our group's progress towards our writing project is right on track. Last week we narrowed our topic down to the Prius hybrid.  We decided to focus on the newest model of the 2012 Prius and decided to focus on the national view and emotions towards the car, statistics, demographics, environment, economy, and compare/contrast to other vehicles, including other hybrids.  We are all working well together.  We are engaged in the research thus far and are all involved in discussions about the project.  I'm sure as this next week approaches we will be doing a lot more work, collectively and independently.  Jessica has been a big help by setting up this blog and making sure our research topics have been accounted for.  I am a non-confrontational dude so I enjoy having someone take initiative.  Ryan has also helped out a lot by setting up our google document where we share our research and findings.

Working as a Group: Observation

I think that so far we are working really well together as a team. I think that everyone is being open with their opinions and ideas which is really great and only benefits the group as a whole. 

I know I have some issues with taking complete control and being bossy. On Wednesday, when were dividing up the work, I kind of assigned everyone else job/topics, and forgot that I still needed a topic to find sources on this week as well. So, that was a small problem that we encountered. 

Other than that I think that we've worked together superbly thus far. 

Group Meeting/ Assignments

In class on Wednesday, we had group meetings. In our group, we narrowed our proposal and brainstormed questions that we could answer in our paper. After narrowing our topic to specifically the Prius, we came up with these questions:
What does it cost?
How fuel efficient is it?
What is the societal view/ public opinion of the Prius?
What's the "Cool" factor?
Who is the target group?
Who does Toyota market to?
How many hybrid cars are on the market?
What are the demographics of Prius owners?
What are the environmental benefits?
What are the projected effects on the environment and economy?
Compare and Contrast to other Hybrids
Aesthetics?

After we put together this list, we assigned certain subjects to individual group members. Our assignment this week is to find sources (at least five each) and to start gathering information.

Erik: National- How people feel and why they feel that way
Ryan: Compare/Contrast- Production Costs, Performance (fuel efficiency), Environmental benefits
Matt: Long Run Economic Effect- Jobs?
Jessica: Demographics/ Statistics

Of course, as we work more together and actually start digging into the research and writing, we'll rework our assignments and information.

Narrowed Proposal

After submitting out proposal to Professor Paul, he suggested that we narrow it further and define our topic even more. So, after class on Wednesday, here is what we have as our rough proposal now. 

We are going to focus our research on a certain model of the Toyota Prius and look at it in regards to the implications it has on the environment and social aspects of the world today.

Proposal

Here is the proposal I submitted to Professor Paul. Let me know if there is anything anyone wants changed or added. I went ahead and already submitted it, but I'm sure that he'll accept a revised copy. I was just worried about meeting the deadline.

Proposal: 

Our group discussed several topics that we could further research and analyze from the different points of view each of our majors lends us. We started with broad topics of interest such as politics, music, and environment. From there, we decided to forgo the political debate and settled on environment. After deciding on environment, we listed out several topics that we could delve into. Some of the ideas we jotted down were: global warming, climate, food, population, energy, and water. As a group, we narrowed it down further to cost effective energies. There seems to be a great call for “going green” and preserving our planet’s resources by looking elsewhere for sources of energy. Our group proposed that our research be done on what impact these new energies will have on the everyday life of “normal” people.

We are still in the planning , discussion, and idea phase of this project, so it is likely that our ideas will mature and become more defined as we actually start conducting research and have more meetings as a group.  

First Post.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Blogging!
This is a blog for our group in Writing 3011. We're starting a group research project so stay tuned for updates and discussion about our topic and such.
Happy Reading!