4/14/10

In this article Anne Lamott, explains that in order to have an amazing final draft first there must be a shitty first draft. Her use of the work shitty was at first shocking but then it made it more relatable. It took away the fact that I was a student ready an article about writing and made it seem like we were two friends talking to each other over lunch.


Also in her article she explains that no one is going to see your first draft so write what you want. This struck a cord with me because I want to just do it and get it over with, but I need to remember to leave myself enough time to write a shitty first draft to correct. With my schedule so hectic I find it hard to find time to write a bad first draft then correcting the paper.

So far I have begun writing my first draft but I have only started to correct my introduction, and other previous papers. During this process I have changed things around, added things and some of the paragraphs are unrecognizable

March 31,2010

I thought that the APA workshop was very helpful in understanding how to cite work. I enjoyed the powerpoint and the presentattion was very well done. I will use the owl website in the future when citing my papers.

March 29,2010 (2)

I found this topic because I was confused on what to do the project on and went several weeks looking for a topic until Alan gave me a great idea to research Mother’s who work and the result that has on the child or children. This topic is important to me because I had a very involved Mother and I was interested to see what effect that had on me and what effect that my peers who had mother’s who work have on them. When it came to finding sources I used Ebsco host and Wilson Web along with a few books that I found in the library. The woman who came in from the library and talked to us about finding sources and where to find them made it so much easier to find what sources fit with my topic. My views on my topic did not change while reading my sources because I did had not formed an opinion before reading the articles and books. I had gone into reading the information with an open mind and ready to consume as much knowledge as possible. A positive outcome from reading my sources was, my topic became more refined and that in turn made it easier to gather the right information. In my study I will be using surveys and interviews to gather information for my topic. My challenge thus far is being a little overwhelmed with the amount of work other than just sitting down and writing the paper that it takes to conduct this project. The making of the surveys and finding time to interview people along with writing the actual paper is what I am finding challenging.

March 29,2010

Lester James wrote a short passage explaining the excessive usage of direct quotes in student’s research paper. According to Lester (1976), only 10% of a final paper should be quotes the rest paraphrasing and analyzing information. Over using quotations is a result of taking notes of too many quotes and therefore only using them in a final paper.

March 15,2010

1. I think a social change I am making as a member of society is that responsibility is not a bad thing. I am a member of a sorority and I think many people do not get involved because they do not want to be responsible for things and not be bothered with getting things done. But I am not afraid to take on certain tasks. I think I can help tip this but including people in things that they would have normally not wanted to be included in. And I think a great way to get people involved is to take a leader of the group and get her involved because then the rest will follow.


2. I think that chapter 4 was the most influential for me because it was the one I was responsible for, for the presentation so I think I read into it with the most depth. It was about the Power of Context and how not to judge a book by its cover which I think that I have a problem doing sometimes, as we all do.

3. I think after reading the Tipping Point I will walk away with a better sense of how to act in the business world and remove myself from a situation and then evaluating it. For example, I tend to not stay so connected with people and connectors always stay connected so I think that I will try hard and stay connected with as many people as I can. In order to strengthen relationships and for connections down the line I may need.

Questions from Paper

4. I am very conservative and I do believe that a person is a product of his environment as well as who he is as a person. The Broken Window theory and The Power of Context believe that it is all where the criminal grew up who his parents were and so on, not blaming any of the behavior on the person just what his circumstances were. I do not believe this to be true because for example there are plenty of crimes who had great childhoods with good moral homes who went out committing crimes. On the other hand there are people with abusive homes, and awful morals trying to make better for not only his/her community for them as well. So as a conservative I do believe that committing a crime is based on who you and where you came from.




5. I believe that is prison conditions were to change it would not impact the behavior of the inmate. We wanted to truly change inmate behavior; they would have to be treated as equals and not looked down upon. This inevitably means not making them criminals anymore. The mentally of you are down here because you committed a crime verses I am up here because I did not would have to change in order for the behavior to change. I think it’s more mental than environmental.

Panels

Conference 1:



When I first walked into the room I saw a bunch of professors sitting in chairs surrounding the room and my expectations for this panel was going to be very low. The first speaker was Dr. Alvina and she began her presentation with a handout. It was a list of five quotes that she found extremely interesting and though we would really enjoy. The basis to her speech was making us aware to the many ways we use text. Some examples were; telling a friend a story about the weather or what happened to us today. She also made us aware to why we tell those stories. It is to entertain to inform? That this telling of stories such as these helps our minds to develop concepts and thoughts we would have never thought of before.

The second speaker was Dr. Gloria Park. She teaches research writing and wants to concentrate on social issues that I would be aware of and that pertain more to my age group. She is having her class do the same social project that we are required to do, and she mentioned that we need to own our research. That means she wants us to connect with it and make sure we understand it to its fullest so we can truly have it change the way we think about that issue and impact our daily lives. She said that peer editors were a very useful tool that her class will be using. Her last note of the presentation was her personal philosophy; moving beyond the class to assist them in finding opportunities to present formally and informally; to merge personal, academic and professional interests.

The third and final speaker of that time slot was, Dr. Watson. Her speech seemed more personal and it seemed like she had sent less time on what her notes cards said, and more time on the concept of her presentation. She stated something that stayed with me after I left the panel, “Literature is a way of getting places people would not normally be able to enjoy themselves.” She also stated the many ways we read each day without even knowing it; text, facebook, and twitter to name a few. She said that even though we are reaching millions of people each day with this form of text we are not truly connected with people. That reading real literature and books help us to gain more relationships with people because we judge less from reading the characters in a book.



Conference 2:

The second panel I attended was with three graduate students who all read short stories they had written. The first was a young girl, early twenties that read her story titled; Flies on the wall. This passage was about a high society couple who gets divorced and that even though they may seem perfect on the outside, behind close doors it is very different.

The next reader was a young man around the same age maybe a little older, with a certain confidence about him that made his story even more drama filled when he read it aloud. His tale was called The Baby. It was about a woman who had just had the plug pulled on her while pregnant, and the husband had to decide what to do with the child inside of her. He dramatically decided to let the baby die along with his wife. As the author described his story he said it was a style of writing called flash fiction. That is a burst of drama and no real end or beginning just the main scenes of a story placed into a few pages.

The third and final reader’s story was lighter hearted than the first two. It was called Sip, and was about two drunken girls who find love in each other while having a night out. One girl is taking care of another who is puking because she is so drunk, and while she is watching her vomit everywhere she finds herself attracted to the other girl. They exchange words and finally kiss each other. This story seemed to be more on life experience then the author had lead on, saying that the only connection she had with it was taking care of a sick friend.



Conclusion:

I enjoyed going to the panels. I had enjoyed them more than I had originally thought. I would go to another if I was given then opportunity.