Blog #10

I have learned so much in English 102. I have learned how to articulate my words by not using is, was, and were. By using descriptive words, the writer can better articulate what he or she wants the reader to understand. I have learned to question any source, no matter how credible it may sound. Kristen also taught us that our opinion matters and what we have to say is important. One great thing I learned is when writing to state my opinion as a fact. It sounds too unsure of yourself and like you may not know what you are talking about unless you state your opinion as a fact. Also, not to use "you" in writing. One of the greatest things I learned is how to write a paragraph. By using TS, CD, CM, etc. it better organizes the paper and makes it flow much smoother. Although it is a pain in the but to do it does help the paper to make sense.

Writing the research paper has been interesting. I have learned a ton about the subject of my paper and want to tell everyone to question vaccines. I probably sound like a broken record to my family and friends. Gathering all the information and putting it into a logical order has probably been the most time consuming. It is all worth it though because I am very pleased with my paper. Also, I hate APA but I better get used to it. MLA was much easier.

In the future, I plan on using all of these things I have learned when I write papers or just in general. I have learned to enjoy writing and feel I have become a much better writer since taking the class. I feel much more confident about my writing and will not feel nervous when I am asked to write another paper.

Kristen has been a great teacher. She has listened and answered any questions(no matter how dumb they were) and made me feel they were valid. I will miss her!

Blog #9

English 102 has been an adventure. I feel my writing has grown tremendously. At the beginnining of the semester, I didn't want anyone to read my writing and was very unsure of myself when it came to writing. I took a telecourse for English 101 and did very well in it but didn't have the opportunity to correct my papers so I did not really feel like I learned a lot. While taking this class, I was surprised that I actually write well. The best compliment was when Kristen asked what field I was going into and I told her nursing. She said this was too bad and that was such a great feeling coming from her.

My first paper, the Evaluative Essay, was pretty bad. I can look back on it now and see many errors like my choice of words. Its funny, because I think I corrected and sent it back three times and it still could be better. This is the funny thing about English. Most papers can always be corrected no matter how many times the writer goes back and rewrites. There is always room for improvement.

My second paper, the Critical Analysis was unlike any paper I have ever written. It is very hard to sit back and analyze why certain characters are the way they are. I had never even thought to do this before. Once I accomplished this, it made my outlook on writing different than previously. I realized how much thought and preparation goes into writing.

Lastly, the research paper is a seemingly overwhelming project. After the outline and the annotated bibliography were done, the task did not feel so daunting. There are still many parts I am working on to improve it but I feel it is an informative and interesting paper.

Our readings from Everything's an Argument have been interesting. I have learned how to think critically and to question everything even if it seems right. Any source, credible or not, needs to be questioned. The readings were a great learning experience in how to think critically.

My studying skills have improved tremendously. I feel very capable of using computers to get the information needed for research. Worldcat has been a wonderful feature to work with when trying to find sources for reference. I am confident with my abilities now, where I wasn't before.

I plan on using my critical analysis, my research paper, and maybe a paper I wrote in English 101 that I thought was good. I think all of these will make a terrific portfolio.

Blog #8 Evaluation of Research Paper

It has been difficult this week. It helped a lot having all the sources there at my fingertips to study. I get overwhelmed if a project seems enormous to me and sometimes want to freeze and put it off. I have not been doing that with this though. It is hard to gather all the information about a certain part of the paper and put it together and keep doing that until it is done. This seems to work for me and helps me not to feel overwhelmed. I like to take a few days and not rush. This way, I am not as stressed and my paper turns out better.

I do find all the information very interesting and am more reassured than ever that I picked a great topic and that people need to do their research before getting vaccinated. I think the paper will be good at the end. I hope the rough draft is good. It will be helpful to get your comments so I can make it better.

Blog #7 Style and Humor

Humor to me is something that makes me laugh outloud or just put a smile on my face. Sometimes, when I am writing, I try to discreetly put in something humorous. It makes me laugh and hopefully makes the reader laugh also. Not everything that is funny to other people is funny to me. The article from The Onion was kind of humorous. It didn't make me laugh outloud but definitely got the point across and kept my attention while reading.

I tend to enjoy really immature comedies, like the new movie Knocked Up. I know it is stupid, but it made me laugh so hard that I cried. I think you also have to be in the mood to enjoy comedy, because after seeing it again, I thought "Why did I think this was so funny?" This is embarassing after telling everyone how funny the movie was.

While writing, I don't think you have to put in jokes or make it too obvious that you as the writer are trying to be funny. Little comments here and there that put a smile on the reader's face are enough. I don't really know how to define style. I would assume that it is the way in which you write your paper. There was a serious point behind the humorous writing from the article from The Onion which I liked. I think you need to decide before writing what you want the reader to walk away with and add in some humor to put a smile on the reader's face and keep the reader's attention.

Reflection on Critical Analysis

I was relatively pleased with my critical analysis. My evaluation of the characters were pretty good. My punctuation needed to be improved and I still used contractions. Bad, bad. Another problem that I didn't even realize I did was that I made the first paragraph last almost two pages. I couldn't believe that I did that.

Another problem was citing my sources which made my grade go down the most. I didn't put them in everywhere they should have been. Also, my title was not creative enough. I thought it had to be kind of formal that said what the assignment was. I will change a couple of sentences to make more sense.

I loved watching the movie and eating. That was a lot of fun. I went home and rented the movie and I think that helped get specifics down. My husband also watched it with me and gave me his viewpoints of certain characters, which I found very helpful. This paper was the most difficult of all the papers we have written so far. It took a lot of thinking and analyzing. It was so hard not to summarize the movie. I have never written a paper like this before. I think it was a good experience though, it made me think a new way. I was impressed with myself on my analysis. I can still revise the paper so it is better.

Reflection on Evaluative Summary

On looking at my paper, there are many things I am going to change. I didn't explain as much as I could have about the details in the article. I think I was so concerned about getting the TS, CD, etc. in there that I left other important details out.

I did somewhat put my opinion in there but I think that could have been done better. I didn't say at all what I thought of the author's opinion of the original text so I need to add that in. Many of my key points need more support. There was not enough details in the paper to support those points. My punctuation and grammar seemed to be good but I needed to use more descriptive words. I always forget not to use contractions so I am changing that. Also, as hard as it is not to have is, was, were, are words in there I think it will sound much more detailed in the end. My summary needs some work too. As hard as it was receiving a 36/50, it definitely drives me to get it up.

Overall, I think the paper was ok but it will get much better, I promise!!!!

Research Paper Free Write

For my research paper, I would like to write about the controversy over the vaccination for human papiloma virus(HPV). Since I am going into nursing, this is of interest to me. Another reason I would like this to be my topic is because my daughter is ten years old and they are suggesting that girls around this age get the vaccination. Some of my friends have already gotten it for their daughters and don't know the details. I am not the kind of mother to just give the vaccination unless I truly believe it is needed. My children have had all the vaccinations but that is because I believe they needed them. It will be interesting to do research to find exactly what it is, how long it has been out, and how long it is good for.

It will be interesting to me to find out all the details of HPV and whether there is a need for a vaccination. Obviously, people think there is.

Blog #3

I thought my informal summary was pretty good. I like working with a group if I trust that they know what they are doing. Nazim could write well so I thought together we did a good job. The only thing I don't like about working in a group is that if I don't agree I don't want to offend the other person but on the other hand they sometimes bring another element that I don't see.

My writing skills are getting better. I took an English 101 telecourse and to be honest I thought it was kind of silly to go into a writing class when I could do it at home, but I was wrong. I am already learning so much more than I expected.

The mistakes that I see on the informal summary are that we put our opinion in a couple of times. ITS SO HARD NOT TO DO! It was Nazim's idea to put in the definition to "looting" and I thought that was a great addition.

I don't feel like I was as prepared as I could have been. The next time I write on an article, I am going to read through the whole article a couple of times so I can get an idea of the whole gest of the article. Just trying to pick things out that I think are important works but could be done better.

I think writing is a process and I will learn as I go.

2nd blog post

I found this essay a little difficult to write. It definitely took a lot of thinking. There are so many aspects that come into writing. You have to think about what you want to write about, what details to add, put them in the correct order, and make sure grammar and punctuation is correct. On this essay, there were a few areas that could be improved. My punctuation was pretty bad. When I look at my paper, this is the biggest problem I see. I definitely need to go back and proofread carefully. I also used "you" and I know better than that. Ha, ha. My thesis sentence could have been more thought out and written better. It was too brief and didn't sum up what the essay was going to be written on. There were also some positives. I believe the content was good. The information was clearly written and properly organized. My use of questions brought a little bit of interest and curiosity to the writing. My conclusion was a good ending. Overall, I think it was good but as in all writing it takes awhile to make it how it should be. Revise, revise, revise.

When writing, I think it is important to think for a few days about what you want to write about. When a detail comes to mind, write it down and then when sitting down to write the paper there are many details to collage and organize. Just sitting at a computer and expecting to come up with a great paper is not feasible. It won't turn out good. It is an ongoing process.
Also, it is a good idea to give it to another person to read. Sometimes, people see details that the writer may not see. They may think of a better word choice, wrong grammar or punctuation, etc. These are some ideas I will use next time I write a paper.

Kendra's 1st Blog Post

Hi Kristen,



Hope I am doing this right!



Kendra's 1st blog on readings from Everything's an Argument and A Writer's Reference.

Our assigned reading were based on how to write on arguments. I had no idea there were so many aspects of arguments that could influence writing. There are arguments using emotions that influence people's feelings to convey a point to the reader. Writers can use emotions to feel connected with the readers especially with topics that are sensitive. The reader wants you to feel what they are feeling. A writer needs to anticipate how the reader will feel when reading the document.



I thought it was interesting that the writer has better luck trying to persuade the reader rather than trying to argue with the reader. When someone argues, they are trying to convict someone into taking action. When persuasion is used, it makes the reader want to take action. According to A Writer's Reference a writer needs to establish the purpose for writing before starting.



Another way to connect with the reader is to use humor. Humor makes a subject that could be controversial or sensitive a little lighter. Sometimes, serious writing doesn't work and won't get through to the reader or may offend the reader but when humor is used it makes the point without being offensive. The writer has to be careful because if humor is used in poor taste it discredits the writer.



People many times base their opinions on what others say about a topic. For example, if the writer is speaking of an opinion of a doctor from Loyola in comparison of an opinion from a doctor at Mercy Hospital in Aurora, the reader will probably side with the doctor from Loyola. This is because people know that Loyola is a respectable hospital and his opinion is more credible. A good example from the Everything's an Argument was how people would believe Consumer Reports regarding SUV statistics rather than an article in People Magazine. This is because Consumer Reports has a good reputation for doing the research on items and the consumer won't trust a magazine like People for buying a car.



Writers need to establish credibility with their readers. Another way to do this is to let your reader know what you don't know. It helps the reader to understand that the writer is down to earth and admits that they don't know everything about a certain topic, so the reader trusts that he/she will only tell what they do know.



My preference with writing arguments would be to use facts and reasons. I don't like to feel like I am being manipulated by a writer. If the writer gives facts, that is something to grab a hold of. The writer needs to document where the facts came from for credibility and plagarizing reasons.

This reading was interesting. I think it will help me think before I write a paper about which angle I want to use before I start writing.

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