1.a The most challenging part of the blog assignment was finding credible online sources. This proved difficult. It was hard finding reliable sites on the Red Baron. Many people told me that they didn't care about the Red Baron or what he did and that I was not making my writings appealing for everyone. I don't care if its not interesting to some people. It is interesting to me, and that's why I picked it!
b. The way I am looking at credibility, now that I looked at the comments of Miss Weleski, I can see that I didn't back up my sources. I must make sure that the authors I use have concrete sources and that they are reliable.
c. The things I'm going to do differently in this phase is that I'll make sure that I find a source that is sound and irrefutable. Furthermore, I'll also try to increase the length of my summaries.
d. There were no comments on phase 5.
2. Article One- Online article, http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA428801
Authors Name- Thomas G. Bradbeer
Title- The Battle for Air Supremacy Over the Somme, 1 June- 30 November 1916
3. Credibility of Source- I found this source when I went to Google Scholar. First off this article is credible because the author, Thomas G. Bradbeer, has many degrees including one in military history. Also he states his sources after each chapter. There is more than enough information in the 116 pages.
4. Summary- Although Thomas does not talk about the Red Baron, I picked the article because of the wealth of information he puts forth on different early flight strategies and airplanes. It gives me some groundwork so that I can be more familiar with what Manfred would have flown and what were some of the strategies developed by the Germans that he would use. I find it helpful when Bradbeer explains that the Germans were the first ones that were able to shoot their machine guns without hitting their propellers. This gave the Germans a cutting edge early in the war.
5. Response- In the beginning of the article the author talks about the fairly new airplanes and tells us that they were at first only used for reconnaissance and were not used as a weapon much. I agree with the author about this point. Since the airplane was so new, the generals did not know their capabilities and potential. They didn't realize that the plane could drop bombs on the enemy and also shoot other planes down. I also learned that the Germans were the first to use air tactics and maneuvers.
You've certainly discovered one of the challenges of research writing. It can be tough when you realize that the topic you are writing about is not something that people are readily interested in; of course, if you are a writer up for a challenge, you can then think of innovative ways to get your audience involved in your topic. If you decide to revise your blog, you'll want to think about making statements of usefulness. You left them out of many of your posts. Basically, you use the statement of usefulness to address the "big picture" of your project. How will the source you selected effectively support you in what you want to tell your audience?
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly an interesting source in terms of credibility. A student wrote it, but since it is for a Master's degree, the source can be considered more reliable than an undergraduate paper. Master's degree students have advisors watching over their thesis projects.
I never really thought about all of the challenges of making a plane into a fighting machine, and I found it surprising that so many innovations were made in such a short span of time as each country desperately tried to get the advantage in this long battle.
I like in the response that you started to see a big picture for the project. It was good thinking on your part to realize that even though the source wasn't talking about the Red Baron specifically, it could provide a helpful context for the conditions in which he had to fight.