Clearly, I didn't keep up with this blog very well. I had high hopes for it, but it didn't come to much.

I got to class and we were waiting outside the computer lab for the professor to come in. Dom told me that someone told him that we needed to have an abstract for the interviews and that him and I would have to stay after class. Dom has a class a couple hours after this one, but I assured him that it shouldn't take more than an hour.

This blog is gonna kill my grade. I keep forgetting to do it.

We made a plan to get the editing done and to get thewritten part done. We decided that since Froy and Laura would do the editingsince they are better with technology, and me and Dom would do the writingsince that’s our forte. We are trying to play to each other’s strengths. It’sworking out.

Personally answer survey and interview

We think it would be interesting to see how we as researchers changed our own views about our nutritional health

We came up with a person to interview who lives on campus, but we had trouble finding someone off campus to interview. I realized that it was difficult to find someone because I don’t walk up to strangers

Email survey questions to group members

When are we meeting on Thursday? 3:15-6:30 in the Campbell library first floor

Last Thursday, my groupmates agreed to each survey 5 people about their nutritional health before Tuesday, April 5. As of right this second, at 10:38 am on Tuesday April 5, I haven't surveyed anyone yet, because I completely forgot. But I still have two classes before WRT, so I'm not worried. The survey doesn't take more than two minutes to look at and take. The hardest part is convincing people that this isn't an FBI investigation.

How do college students perceive their health as, versus their nutritional health “in reality”?

a.       How far out of the way will college students go to meet their ideal of nutritional health?

b.      When presented with the truth, are college students concerned with their idea of nutritional health ?

Writing, Research & Technology Survey Questions

1.       On a scale from 1 no 10, (1 being the least healthy, 10 being the healthiest), how do you view your own nutritional health?

2.       How often do you eat fast food per week? (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Burger King etc.)

3.       How often, in a given week, do you eat home cooked meals?

4.       On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate the health options of food on campus? (1 being the least healthy, 10 being the healthiest?

5.       Do you live on-campus or off-campus?

6.       Does your budget affect your diet when on campus?

7.       Do you snack more, or eat full meals given your normal week schedule?

8.       Which do you prefer on a normal school day? Circle One: Water   Soda    Juice   Caffeinated Drink

9.       On a scale from 1 to 10, (1 being the least motivated, 10 being the most motivated) how motivated is your school to provide healthier alternatives?

10.   Did your view change in terms of your personal nutrition after taking this survey?

WRT Interview Questions

1.       What do you think of your nutritional health?

2.       Compared to your peers’ nutritional health, do you find your health better or worse? Do peers habits affect your own diet?

3.       Giving complete freedom, what would you have for dinner tonight?

4.       What are your thoughts on nutritional supplements, and do you take any yourself?

5.       What kinds of food services does your school provide?

6.       Do you think the food offered to you at school is on par with your own nutritional view? Why or why not?

7.       Do you think your campus food services offer healthy alternatives?

8.       What campus food services do you use? Vending machines? Salad bars?  Cafeterias? Fast food chains?

9.       Do you think that your school is aiding you with your search for nutritional food? Why or why not?

10.   How do you think your school can improve its healthy alternative for students and teachers?

11.   How many meals do you have per day? Do you snack? What kinds of snacks?

Do your eating habits differ between the week and the weekend with more free time? At home vs. at school?

These are our research questions, our survey questions and our interview questions for our project. We actually thought these up last Thursday, but I didn't get around to putting them up until today. I think this is good progress, but we've still got a long way to go with this project. That's understandable seeing as we only just started it, but with it being the end of the semester, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for any class I'm taking, so why should WRT be any different?

Seriously, though, this project should be interesting, despite the rocky start we had trying to find a research question. My teammates and I were supposed to write up 10 possible questions before we got to class on Thursday, but, I'm sorry to say, we didn't do that. In fact, one of us wasn't even in class when we got that seemingly easy assignment. Assignment? Yes. Easy? No.

We got together and came up with a brilliant idea that we were sure couldn't possibly go wrong....but it did. The prof wasn't digging it and that pissed me off a little. Okay, maybe "a little" is an understatement, but research projects and I aren't exactly best friends. In fact, we haven't been on speaking terms in a while. The last few semesters have consisted of creative fiction, aka my specialty, so the research thing in general makes me anxious. Ontop of that, we have to go out and interview people, people of all things on this earth. Strangers make me anxious too, but...I'll see what I can do. After all, I did sign up for a class called writing, RESEARCH, and technology, so I might as well suck it up and be a good sport. This course is part of my Writing Arts major requirements, so I had to take it, but I think....no, I know, that it'll be good to step outside of my tiny little box made of stainless steel and try something new as a writer.

I'm personally calling this project "There and Back Again" because it reminds me of J.R.R. Tokien's story about little Bilbo Baggins's adventures in the wide world of Middle Earth. He, too, was reluctant to leave his little hobbit hole, but when he finally came back, even after getting almost eaten by giants, Bilbo was glad that he'd left. It made him a stronger (little) person and that's how I'd like to view this assignment. That it'll make me stronger as a writer. Fiction really is my safe zone, but it's not enough to hope that I can leave college and immediately make a living off of it. So I figure exploring new writing environments now while I can make mistakes and not get fired for it has to be a good thing. Whenever I enter a new genre, nonfiction, poetry, the essay, the dreaded research paper, I try to calm myself by connecting it to fantasy somehow. I know there's a difference between reality and dreams, but there's also similarities. Hence, "There and Back Again."

I'm still not entirely sure of the exact wording of our research question, but it has something to do with "how college students view their eating habits and whether or not they are healthy."

This blog is part of my Writing, Research and Technology class, but I've separated it from the class reading blog because this here is a whole 'nother can of worms. I've moved on from reading established authors' works and writing a response to them. Now I will collaborate with three of my classmates to delve into the apparently dicatatorial, brainwashing, quickly-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket world of food. My professor showed us a little film called Food Inc., which was a look at the seedy (pun intended? maybe, maybe not) underbelly of the food industry. Now it's my turn to investigate people and their relationship with food, and to write about what hateful truths I plan to exhume from the dark labrinth that is the human soul..... Here I go, through the looking glass..................