The Approaching Danger

       My topic is about the influence the Mexican drug war has on our nation as it draws nearer to our border. Some recent news as of 2 weeks ago is that bullets have actually traveled into Texan towns from stray fire in Mexican fire fights. Also, corruption is destroying the mexican government from within as officials and police are targeted first by the rebels. As the fighting escalades it pushes more and more to leave their nation. Therefore pushing more immigrants into the U.S. There are numerous other problems that emerge form this crisis.
      I picked this topic because of my interest in world affairs. I like to know what is going on around the world. I picked this though because it is a worldly event that is right next door to our nation. Therefore it will have an influence on us as their problem gets worse. I am looking forward to digging into this issue with further research

Marine Mammals

I have a little bit of knowledge about marine mammals. Most of my knowledge is pretty basic because I haven’t researched much about them before. I often watch Discovery channel, especially shark week. (even though they aren’t mammals) I really only know the basics of marine mammals behaviors. They care and nurse for their young. Most travel in pods or groups. They have the same basic bone structure as humans, especially in their limbs. They have a way of communicating for survival purposes. Most have similar brain structure to humans as well.
I think that I may want to limit my research to just one type of marine mammal though. I think that if I try to compare all mammals I will be overwhelmed with information. I’m not really sure which mammal I would want to choice, because even within one species there are still a lot of different breeds. I think if I had to choice which animal it would be either the whale or the dolphin. However, should I choice another subgroup like humpbacks, or bottlenose dolphins to limit my search? Or can I compare them?
I have done a little bit of research on my own lately, and have found a few sites that would be good for comparing them. They actually have recordings of the different sounds that certain mammals make while communicating. I think that this could be very helpful when I start writing because I can actually hear what they sound like instead of interpreting or trusting what other people have said about the sounds they make.
I am pretty excited about researching this project. There is a lot of information about this, and I think that it will keep me interested in the topic.

Berlin

I have chosen Berlin, Germany as my research subject. I will attempt to answer the question, "Is Berlin still divided by a psychological wall between east and west?" After World War II a wall was built in Berlin dividing the communist East, with the capitalist West. Cultures were very different on both sides. The communist East had very strict rules on what you could do, and on what you could purchase. There was high amounts of security dividing the sides, and strict laws on how long you could stay. In November, 1989 the wall was torn down, freeing the people of the east. After so many years of separation the people on both sides held many different beliefs and lifestyles. Some researchers say that there is still a psychological divide amongst the sides. People from the west believe easterners are poor and lazy. People from the east believe that westerners are stuck-up. I've been to Berlin twice, both trips lasting approximately a month. Even after my short stays there, I can even sense a divide amongst the sides.

im doing this late :/

For my research question I will be covering whether or not the first round draft picks of the NFL are worth the money and hype? also is there a stigma that surrounds the draft?
I have always watched the NFL draft coverage on tv along with the coverage and pre-show that start months before the draft take place. In the past there has been draft picks that go in the 6th round and end up being the league's MVP (Tom Brady), but there have also been #1 draft picks of the first round that have amounted to nothing (Jamarcus Russell). Picks 1-10 typically have the highest paid contracts but 11 and below typically start having contracts that are only a fraction of what the top ten signed on for. Is the hype and money worth the player? How do we know that they will even succeed in the NFL? These are all questions that I have pondered about the draft. I personally believe that the biggest reason to pay the high dollar to the top picks are to draw people into following the season earlier than just a week or so before the pre-season starts.

what I know

Well my research question is Why do criminals do what they do? I already know from psychology that sometimes criminals have a malfunction in their amygdala which is a tiny brain structure that controls emotional and mental state. But i really want to know if in most cases do criminals have a disfuctional amygdala, or what other factors could play into the reason that they behave in such manner.

Founding Fathers

I am going to be looking at the founding fathers and their views on how our country should be set up. So far i have read Ben Franklin's autobiography, some letters of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and also some of George Washington's autobiography. For the most part from Franklin's and Washington's autobiographies there was not a lot about how they think about the government and what system would work better but it was about their principles and morals. They were always about what is good for the community and country. Repeatedly Ben Franklin had so many chances to make a lot money and have high political offices but he refused because it would not be in the best interest to the colonists. Washington is the same way, I forget the exact time but after Washington was President he went back home and some one came back and told him that the country needed he help and he said have I not done enough for my country already. But as you guessed it he went to Washington D.C. and did what was needed of him. These men were the most reputable and honest men you could think of. In the many letters that I have read by Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Hamilton many times they talk about that the government should protect the people and that the people should have a say. I still have a lot of reading to find out more but I think I'm on the right track.

research questions/knowledge

I already have some previous knowledge about my research topic. We learned about criminal's minds in psychology class and I have watched many shows dealing with the issue. I know that serial killers, have many mental issues. They are usually quiet, smart, and have few friends. Some things I have seen indicate that their childhoods may have been rocky but not necessarily all of them. Their mental issues are not usually limited to simple depression but they are disorders along the line of bipolar and things of that nature. I would still like to know if their behavior is linked with their past, by looking at different people's childhood and surrounding factors. I would still like to know why they commit crimes. Is it their mental psychosis or are they pure evil?

What I do and don't know...

Here's sorta the jist of what I'm doing for our research.


I'm hoping to focus primarily on photography during the Civil War. My question is what impact (as a whole) did photography have during the Civil War? I know there is a famous portrait taken of Abraham Lincoln during this time, so I'll discuss that topic. I am interested people's reactions from seeing portraits of dead bodies. Those two topics are where I will start and I'm hoping to find many other areas on how photography impacted everyone and the culture during that time.


So what I do already know are types of photography and printing done back in that era. I know the general idea of the impact on a few photos during that time as well. However, I don't exactly remember the names of specific things, but I am certain I will find that out. My plan is to gather a decent variety of photographs (including the few I already know about) and discuss the impact. However, I'm not sure if I'm going to be comparing and contrasting them, or just going down a list explaining the impacts it had on people. Or if there is an even better approach.


I know that a good beginning for the paper is to discuss the start of photography during this era it's just the middle and end where I feel like I'm going to have the most trouble.

What I know about Kazakhstan

There are few things that I do know about Kazakhstan. I know that the main religion is Islam, and that the primary language is Kazakh. But the Russian emigrants that were forced to go to Kazakhstan under the USSR rule still speak only Russian, and the vast majority of them are still Christians. I know that the normal language of business is Russian, and that English is slowly rising as a dominant language in their country. They are now teaching English to the students in school as well as having special places open to go in and learn the language. Their economy is not the best but they are a developing country and they have come a long way in the few years that they have been independent. I also know that apples are originally from Kazakhstan. This is something that is a little hard to believe considering that when you think of the country you see that it is in the Middle East and is probably all desert. But it is not that way. There is desert in the bottom region on the country, but the northern part in much like Russia and Europe. The president of Kazakhstan has been president since it has become a country, and has been elected as “President for Life,” something that after looking at their history you would not think that they would want to do. Their government is kind of corrupt and it is not common to see that they are using money that is for your city or even country for their own personal things. The Kazakh language is a very similar language to that of the language of Uzbekistan. There are quiet a few Uzbeks living in the southern region of Kazakhstan. It is also know that almost all Kazakhs can speak Russian as well as their native tongue.

Research Topic - What I Know

The research topic that I have in mind is what are the differences and similarities between American and Korean culture. More specifically what are the differences and similarities in the younger age groups. I already know that Koreans tend to be much more social than Americans, which leads to group based entertainment. The Korean education system is much different than ours, there is an emphasis on learning foreign language, specifically English. The competition to get into schools is also much more fierce.

what I've learned about my research

first of all I've learned that my topic was too broad. In talking with professors about medical research and gender bias, they suggested that I concentrate in one disease and not try to generalize the problem. I decided to concentrate on heart disease and what took us so long to figure out that women have different symptoms. I've also learned that many biases come from government allowing researchers to exclude women from clinical research due to possible pregnancy, complications and time restrictions due to family responsibility and other issues as well.

What little I know

The topic I have chosen for research is the origin of Jiu-Jitsu, and the splits it has undergone since the formal creation. What I do currently know about Jiu-Jitsu is not alot, I know that it started in Japan, and that it had two major offshoots, Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Other than that all I know is how to do Jiu-Jitsu, so needless to say that only barely helps me write a paper. Some of my main research points will be finding out who was the first to coin Jiu-Jitsu, also what influenced them to form this style of fighting. Then hopefully find out some information on how the Gi and Dojos came about, and how they along with the martial art have evolved. For the last half of my research I will find out what made the decision for people to branch off to create Judo, and later Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Already my love of the sport has me very interested in finding out all there is to know about the history, so that I can know what it is and not just how to do the moves.

Hotels

Why Do we still have and need Inn/small hotels?
I have looked at different kinds of inn, bed and breakfast,non chain hotels, all over the U.S.A. and even started looking into other countries and their hotel offers . I read a book about how an inn is run and what goes into them. I listen to a speaker talk about why we need hotels with over a 1000 rooms in them. For big events in cities like Indianapolis they push and use tax dollars to build bigger hotel, football stadiums, and convention centers with rooms for things like the super bowl game. so that bring me to wonder about why do we still have small hotels and what makes them profitable?

How has US healthcare changed in the last 50 years

I actually know a good amount of general information about the topic because we exposed to it very briefly in my Health Science 180 class. I know that insurance has grown much more complex over the last 50 years. I know health insurance was started during World War 2 by private companies because wages were froze so employers couldn't offer better wages but could give additional benefits such as health insurance to their employees. I know that back then it was a much simpler system ,but I am not really sure exactly how it worked. I am familiar with current insurance practices and how current insurance works at least enough to explain the basics. Some other things that I know are that healthcare costs dramatically increased during the late 1970s and 1980s and there are some possible reasons for this. One is that there were new advances in diagnostic tests and new drugs that were created during this period.

Research Topic

My research topic is going to be in the sports category. I am going to talk about Title IX and if it is fair or not. Title IX basically says that both men and women should have an equal opportunity in educational programs. Educational Programs includes sports and that is going to be my primary focus. I am going to stick with high school and collegiate sports. A lot of it has to do with the number of teams a school can have and the number of scholarships they can give out to each gender.

Research Topic

To write a 12 page paper, you must be able to easily discuss the topic without any slight sense of boredom. This way, you are always intrigued in the information you find and you clearly think and come up with ideas in your head. If you were to choose a topic that has no meaning to you personally, then you'll find yourself just simply going through the routine motions of writing a research paper. For my topic, I chose to go down the path of something I've always loved, music. More specifically, band break-ups. Although many people feel as if this topic would have little to no direction at all, I have decided to hone in on why bands break rather than just the hiatus in general. I already consider myself knowledgeable in a musical sense, so I thought this topic would be enjoyable to me. I have a grasp that bands break up for multiple reasons including financial disputes, medical illnesses, family problems, consistent negativity towards band members, and sometimes a band member just wants to go in a different direction. I don't think the answer is the same in all cases, but perhaps I can find a similarity between them and get to the root of most problems. To do this, I'll have to delve into the history of the band as well as their career as musicians. Luckily, I have knowledge of most of the influential bands of our time. I will reference, The Beatles, Guns N Roses, Pink Floyd, Blink 182, and some other smaller bands that will be mentioned in my paper.

Mainstreaming in General Education

For my topic I've chosen to do mainstreaming in the general education setting. I'm very passionate about this topic because I am a dual major in special ed and elementary ed, so it pertains to both areas. I'd like to focus on how placing disabled students in the regular classroom effects not only them, but the other children. I've taken a semester class on special education laws and regulations, so i'm aware of the basic ideas and platforms for this topic. I strongly believe mainstreaming is important not only for the disabled student, but the general education population as well. It gives the disabled student a chance to progress socially around their peers, and also gives the gen ed students a chance to experience working with somebody who requires special needs. I personally know families with children who are involved in mainstreaming, that could give me great insight on the topic.

How To Limit Warfare?

The title, "How To Limit Warfare?" pretty much sums up my problem at this point. I have so much I can research. I have a vast amount that I am interested in. I just have to narrow it all down. As I was doing some preliminary research on the overall military tactics and technology changes I continued to come up with a lot of the same data hits. Most of them had to do with U.S. Military Drones and their uses. I know for example that a few years back the United States began arming our unmanned drones. The once reconnaissance platform is now one of our "go to guys" for taking out remote or dangerous targets. As I read through some of these sources I began to see a trend. A lot of people from around the world are chiming in on how these new "death drones" are used. I think that I too would like to "chime in". I believe I am now planning on focusing my research on these new unmanned aircraft, their uses, their armaments, and how they are used. I might go a bit farther into how they are used AND why. I'll have to decide which side of the ethical dilemma these "death from afar" type weapons cause. In any case it looks like a lot of research and even more thinking before I begin writing my first drafts for my final paper...

I already have some previous knowledge about my research topic. We learned about criminal's minds in psychology class and I have watched many shows dealing with the issue. I know that serial killers, have many mental issues. They are usually quiet, smart, and have few friends. Some things I have seen indicate that their childhoods may have been rocky but not necessarily all of them. Their mental issues are not usually limited to simple depression but they are disorders along the line of bipolar and things of that nature. I would still like to know if their behavior is linked with their past, by looking at different people's childhood and surrounding factors. I would still like to know why they commit crimes. Is it their mental psychosis or are they pure evil?

Character Impact of Sports

Character development in athletics is not a new topic. It has been the most highly touted banner for athletics since athletics have been around. Therefore it is not hard to learn quite a bit about this topic and get intrigued by it. For instance, athletics were made a part of British boarding school curriculum on the basis that they taught the same number of lessons, if not more, than activities in the classroom. These lessons were very different though than the ones American sports emphasize. The British version focused on leadership qualities while Americans focused on team-building qualities. In more recent sport history, it has been shown that the very nature of a sport can cause character erosion. This probably won’t come as a shock to anyone but even though the rules are heavily enforced in both sports, football has a higher number of low character incidents than golf. A great impact on character development has been the development of coaches being able to choose athletes at the higher levels of competition. Coaches will often not draft or recruit a player who will not represent their team or school in a way that does not involve a high level of character. Tony Dungy, former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Kelly Graves, basketball coach at Gonzaga University, and former West Point football coach Dwight D. Eisenhower are some examples of those coaches.

Poor Conditions of Animals being Raised for Human Use

My topic is going to focus on the living conditions animals endure in their lifetime that are subjected to human uses and testing.

I already know much about apparel production in relation to animals. Animals such as the most common, minks and foxes, are held in fur farms for their entire lives. They are raised there for one single purpose of life, to be killed and have their fur made into various apparel garments. There has been many disturbing investigations of fur farms where inhumane activities take place. Its bad enough that these animals are even killed but the way they are killed is shocking. Electrocution, beating to death, suffocation, and even breaking their necks are just a few of the methods used. Millions upon millions of animals each year are killed for apparel use.

Another topic i will most likely focus on is the food production industry and their methods of raising animals for food. Last year i received a pamphlet from an animal abuse activist that included many disturbing pictures and explanations of what really occurs in these farms. From that i learned that these farms will hold thousands of chickens in one cage. These chickens are just stacked on top of each other struggling for life every day with no care. They often get cuts and even lose limbs and have to live the rest of their lives with no care until they are killed and produced into food.

These are just a few ideas i have so far but im also considering adding one more aspect of abuse such as animal testing.

Updated Topic For Art History Related Paper

I am still going with the topic of how the Italian Renaissance popes had influence over the artist at the time and the work that they commissioned. I will begin with a brief summary of the historical and political climate of the times as well as any technological advances that have any bearing on the topic.

I am only going to discuss the main popes of that era since there were a few that only survived for a year or less as pope. Many of these popes came from just a few influential families at that time including the Medici and the Roverro families and I will discuss their influence and how they would also use the papacy to maintain power.

The list of artists I will discuss will also be about as short as that of the popes since only a few were able to keep in favor of the popes and also because some of the commissions they received may have taken several years to complete. I will also discuss how some artists who were in favor of one pope may have lost that favor of his predecessor and why.

I will focus more on the overall work that was done instead of discussing each piece individually since a discussion of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michaelangelo would be a term paper in itself.

I'm an exercise nut, but what do I know about it?

To be quite honest, when it comes to exercise, I know a lot about the exercise that I do, myself, but I do not know much about the science of exercise as a whole. It is something that I've always wanted to learn as much as I can about because I do so much of it.

My research question is:
How much exercise do we need each week and what kind of exercise would be the most beneficial?

From watching the news, growing up and currently, having physical education throughout school, and reading the news paper and magazines, I can gather that a person needs to do some sort of cardiovascular activity at least five times per week. The duration of this activity and the type of cardiovascular workout has changed from year to year because of different studies that have been done, or new developments that have been made.

I have heard anything from "we need 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity five days per week, moderate to intense jogging or elliptical machine" to "we need 60 minutes of cardiovascular activity everyday, mild impact". These are two very different recommendations that could potentially affect people in very different ways with the benefits they may produce. I'm sure that there is no clear cut answer as to how much exercise we need each week and of what kind, but by researching the topic and looking at it from different sides, hopefully I can gain a better understanding of what constitutes a healthy amount of exercise each week.

Sports Sponsorships

With professional sports being a multibillion dollar industry I wanted to learn more about the sponsorships that help make it so massive. For those of you who do not know what a sponsorship is, it is basically a company paying a professional sports team in any monetary value for promotion and identification of their company’s (products and services) with the sports team. For example, every time you watch a NFL football game on TV or at the stadium you will always see a Gatorade cooler on the sideline. Why is that? Well, because Gatorade is an official “beverage” sponsor of the NFL and they have paid the right to have that exclusive exposure.

The aforementioned example is just one of many different types of sponsorships in professional sports these days. What I want to focus on are the officials “whatever” sponsorships of the NFL and NBA. When a company is the Official sponsor of something specifically they are the only ones entailed to provided that product/service to the league and are be mention every time their product/service is being used, and etc. In addition to researching how these “official” sponsor deals are conducted, I want to learn the affects it has on the teams in the league when they look for local and regional sponsor of competing brands. From Television to in stadium signage, to clothing deals and beyond these sponsorships make or break professional sports.

Two Chapters, Really?

Chapters six and seven could have been combined into one chapter but the authors decided that reading and evaluating your resources should be done separately. Why? I don't have a clue. When I read something I will usually try to analyze it at the same time. Personally it saves me time and effort. I guess they needed to point out that one should look into the context of what they are reading instead of just taking it as the truth because it's in a book or journal. I also don't summarize each one of my resources but instead I will summarize the entire idea at the end of a paper. Paraphrasing is another concept that I never really feel comfortable about doing. It always seems like direct quotes are a better way to go since most of what we read is by professional writers and I never seem to be able to word an idea as eloquently as they already have and going back to chapter eight if I use direct quotes and cite my sources there is no fear of infringing on copyrights or being accused of plagiarism.

Verifying your data is very important especially with any data found on the internet. Many of the other points in the chapter seem like common sense to me like checking the validity of your resources. Isn't that the point of looking at several different resources so you can cross reference them? I've never felt that there was a perfect cookie-cutter method to doing research and that it is more dependent upon the individual and their personal comfort level with the materials they are working with. As you may be able to tell I don't place much merit on the book's stringent method of doing research and would have liked to have seen more flexibility and different suggestions to come up with the same results.

Confused And Lost

Let me start off by saying I've been confused about the schedule from our syllabus since the first week when we changed the topic from "Reflection on Ball Point, Chapters 1& 2" to the search for Jill D. Jenson's "It's the Information Age, So Where's the Information? Why Our Students Can't Find It and What We Can Do to Help". I'm used to getting an updated schedule when it changes since almost all of my prior classes here at Ball State refer me back to the syllabus if I had a question about the schedule. With this in mind my journal entries are behind and I'm not really sure what is due when so I will just keep posting entries in the order they are in my current syllabus.

Chapter five was rather short and I felt that most of the methods of research discussed were not methods I would ever use. With the type of writing I expect to do in the future I feel I will be using library resources most often. The idea of doing interviews doesn't interest me much probably because I don't like questioning people, I'd rather just have a conversation and if any questions arise it feels more comfortable to me. The use of surveys is interesting but I've always felt it was to easy for the surveyor to skew the questions to get the results they are looking for instead of a random sample.

Chapter eight was far more interesting with it's discussion of plagiarism and I didn't realize until reading that there was a difference between blatant plagiarism and careless plagiarism. I always thought plagiarism was always the same thing, presenting somebody elses work as your own without giving any credit. The section on copyrights and copyright laws was rather vague and they only touched on the basics, it is a good idea to do some deeper research when dealing with copyright material instead of relying on the one page of text in our book.

Helping Your Writing Ability

When it comes to typing up research papers, we have been taught numerous things throughout our schooling history. These philosophies about how to make writing a paper easier have been very helpful for me. Chapter Six is similar to other readings in this concept. The chapter discusses summarizing as well as paraphrasing in order to properly use a source that you have gathered. The topic that caught my attention was the section about selecting potential quotations. I always fail to incorporate the author's use of powerful language to express their views. I recognize that if I were to use the stronger quotations from the text that my points will be very more clever and believable. I also need to be capable of providing more evidence to support my points. I need to prove people's questions wrong before they even ask them. Another topic that this chapter discusses is the fact that a student must correctly evaluate their sources that they choose. Chapter Seven entails the facts on how to correctly analyze your sources. One aspect a writer must think of is the credibility of the author. When it comes to research, credibility is everything.

Rhetorical, Purposefully and Yoshi?

First of all this has little to do with the reading. But when I read the intro to chapter six I thought they were going to show Yoshi, Mario's sidekick!
On to the blog assignment, I found it very helpful. And I'm glad to know the key differences between reading purposefully and rhetorically. The check list was very helpful, and once again this will be a good reference to look at when finishing our first assignment.
Then after reading chapter seven I feel like gathering data will be a cakewalk now. I just have to keep in mind to verify, copy, respond and fill in the gaps. The two that I'll have to keep in mind the most is verifying and filling in the gaps. I will admit I am among the majority who just keep collecting data in hopes that it'll end up writing itself. For the most part I do respond to what I've collected, if I understand it that is. I also wait till the last minute to fill in the gaps, which isn't a smart idea seeing if I am missing anything it always ends up being thrown in the paper the last second.
All in all, these chapters have proved to be very useful and short!

To Read or Not to Read... Questions?

Ok, so the question is not if we should read or not. The question is how we read what we read. I was most impressed by the first of our two chapters tonight, ch. 6. It was very informative about how we read rhetorically or not. I had never thought about if I was reading “purposefully or rhetorically” (WGTR, 114) or how exactly I was reading. I personally enjoy reading, though usually purposefully. More often than not I read for pleasure, or to relax. I often find myself reading some sci-fi or fantasy realm crap just to relax and unwind. Of course we have to read or at least skim through our texts for class. I have found however, that the Wadsworth Guide to Research isn’t so much of a “drag” to read as many of my other college texts. Yes it is boring “English” stuff. However, it is relevant and it is very well written for the average collegiate audience. It has pretty colors and designs. More importantly however, it does have information we need for class and that we can use. It doesn’t seem to be filled with “extras” that aren’t important to the subject matter of our classes.
Even chapter seven which was only ten or so pages was packed with important information about how to evaluate the data we will be using for ALL of our research. I believe that those ten pages could have serious ramifications for the future of our ENG104 grade. I mean, how are we possibly to be able to research responsibly if we don’t know how to evaluate the data we are looking up? I was especially interesting in the way the chapter broke the evaluation process down into four even steps. Each of the steps, Verify, Copy, Respond, and Fill Gaps, was useful in its own way. Some of us are better than others at each of these steps, but we could all use some help in some aspect of this. I am better at the filling of the gaps than I am at the responding aspect of this process. Verifying resources is something I am continually doing, however the copying of sources, their information, and overall keeping tabs on all that I have researched to date is not one of my strong suits.
All in all I appreciate the knowledge imparted by these chapters. I know writing a sentence like that is kind of lame. That being said these chapters are essential to getting a good grade in our current class. Not to mention rhetorically analyzing, and writing based on what you’ve researched well.

Just like the movies

Here we go starting the reading tonight I thought oh boo I don't like read why would I want to read about reading. Reading a movie... I only that if part of it is in a different language... Well thats what I thought. I realize I rhetorically read movies or TV more so. I know with a good mystery show I always try to be one step ahead, with any good movie I always asking questions about what is going on. I never realize its just like reading a good book. Summarizing is not only for understanding but it leads right to helping you keep organized. You can take your information and keep it straight. it will help you do little things with your paper and knowing what you have to use.

ch. 6 :)

Chapter 6 to me was actually a good refresher to writing an essay. It talked a lot about how to grab the readers attention, setting the tone and thesis statements. Reading chapter 6 around this time is helpful because, I actually planned on doing my second draft for the first writing project for this class. So this chapter really refreshed my memory as to some different writing techniques. Out of all the chapters that I have read out of Ball Point so far this by far has been the most resourceful. I feel like I am a pretty good writer but some of the things mentioned in chapter 6 made me realize some things that I actually could fix to improve my writing. Such as how to change paragraphs. Sometimes I find myself leaving a paragraph and jumping to the next without some kind of lead. I just stop one topic and go to the next. Chapter 6 really pointed out some good ways to paragraph things.

Helpful Chapters

These two chapters were helpful in organzing your research and helping you write a rhetorical analysis. I agree with somebody else's blog they posted earlier, that it would have been helpful being assigned these chapters before our rhetorical analysis on Jenson's article was due. I feel like many people wrote their essay as a reflection, and not an analysis out of confusion. I also found these chapters helpful in setting up and creating your annotated bibliography. I like that it showed you how to conduct your research, like setting up interviews etc. I will definitely look back on these chapters for our research paper we have coming up.

I wish I had read this last week.

I wish that I read chapter 6 before I started writing my Rhetorical analysis paper. Myself like probably many others made the mistake when first writing my paper of summarizing instead of rhetorically evaluating the Jill Jenson article. For me it has been awhile since I took English 103 and did rhetorical analysis. If Tess is reading this than I might suggest that next time before first drafts are due and conferences start that you assign your students to read chapter 6 earlier so that maybe they won't be so confused when writing their papers. Chapter 6 was great at giving ideas about how to think rhetorically. I really liked the example of how you use it when watching a movie. Chapter 7 is also a good chapter in that it gives you some great ideas about conducting research after we have now learned about the databases and cardcat. It is really a nice transition. Two thumbs up.

6 & 7 Bulldozers

Most of us do not like to read; personally I am trying to teach myself to enjoy it. Reading chapter six really made me think about “how” I read. I follow a few entrepreneurship blogs which are usually annotated resources and they usually have new post every day. I try to read them the day they are posted, but obviously that does not always happen and when it doesn’t I usually have to crank them out faster than normal. So, by doing this am I reading rhetorically or purposefully, or either. I think most of the time I am reading these blogs rhetorically, carefully analyzing what is discussed, especially real world examples.
I like to think of myself as an organized person. Chapter seven certainly provided a few new and better techniques that I will probably be using for this class. First off, their three step process of:
Verifying
Copying
Responding
Filling gaps

Was a cool way to make the research process more understandable. One thing I seem to have done a lot in the pass is focus primarily on the “fill gaps” section and kind of skim through the rest. This time around I will hopefully stay focused and devote the same amount of time to each section. Another was using “del.icio.us” as a bookmarker for the site I use as references. I’ve know about del.icio.us for a long time, but I never thought of using it as a “reference” bookmarker for writing projects. I feel like I will come back to these chapters as a reference when I hit a “road block” and hopefully they will inspire me to push through.

Ch 6 & 7

These two chapter are crucial in making an annotated bibliography and tracking your resources. I found it very helpful and will probably even use the suggested cover sheet so I can get organized with my big project. It is well written and organized for everyone to be able to use it and I really would recommend it to anyone looking for some straight guide to creating the bibliography and research paper itself. On page 119 there is also a quick 6 steps for the annotated bibliography that I will definitely use because last time I did one I had no guidance at all. I did not know there was a specific way you could do this. Great chapter all in all.

Ch 5

Chapter 5 is easy to read and gives you lots of tips on citing especially. I usually have to look very closely and be very careful with my citing since it seems like all my classes want some different style. This will be a good source for me. This section talks about plagerism and the consecuences and easy errors we can make. It's pretty scary and I guess we all need to be very caucious about this.

Don't Forget to Wash Behind Your Ears!

I feel after I finish reading the chapters in The Wadsworth Guide to Research it's as if my mom is telling me don't forget to wash behind my ears. In chapter 5 "Conducting Primary Research" it explains on developing a research plan, ethical considerations, how to conduct interviews, observations, surveys, and how to interpret and present the results of primary research. Moving on to chapter 8 "Understanding Plagiarism and Integrating Resources" this was a kind reminder on plagiarism. (Duh!) I feel after reading these two chapters that I have concepts that I can implement not only in the current assignment we're on, but for any assignment during my college career. And once again I enjoyed the graphics in this guide.

Chapter 5 WGR

Chapter 5 was a pretty simple chapter. The ethical considerations and interpretations of survey data was actually interesting. I've had experience with different types of research but I've never performed or thought about doing a survey so that was new. I've known a little bit about interviews but I've never used it. It's nice to have a guide for it if I need it in the future though. Observations are the ones I've done the most so that was really nothing new. That was all pretty straightforward. The entire eighth chapter was also straightforward. Nothing was really new there..

Reading = Learning

Chapter five was a pretty good read. Since I have had a lot of experience with
Primary research chapter five certainly opened up my eyes to a few specific aspects that I need to pay attention to. The first being the three different types of “Primary” research, I had no idea that in went into this kind of detail and classification. I really like the concept of “interviews” as primary research because I always like to hear what peoples take are on certain situations, questions, etc. I personally am not a fan of surveys, just because they are usually not taken seriously, but they are the simplest to conduct. Another thing that caught my eye was the “ethical consideration” section. When I do a survey, interview, etc I usually try to be sensitive to the audience in which I am conversing with, but they take a nice perspective on it. The last part I took to was the “data interpretation” section. When I conduct research first hand (I’ve done this multiple times when I was starting up my first company) it was hard to fully understand “open end” questions. I also like their research plan model.

Chapter eight was something we have all heard OVER and OVER again, but I actually learned something from this chapter. The “fair use” concept of copyright was interesting in the sense it was not all hardcore about “this is mine and no one else can use it”. The “integrating reseoucres” section was quite helpful. As someone who always has trouble with this I now know where to go to get help when I cant just GOOGLE it, haha.

Overall I continue to like the readings, as I am learning new things (imagine that, haha).

Learning Not to Cheat

These chapters were about conducting primary research and understading plagiarism. Chapter five talked about conducting an observation and giving an interview. These are both helpful, but not for our projects. We probably won't have the opportunity to meet anybody that would be relevant for our projects. However, the paragraphs over ethical considerations and interpretation of data were helpful. It went into detail about analyzing and interpretting data. Chapter eight was entirely about understanding plagiarism. It talked about blatant plagiarism and careless plagiarism. I think all of us are guilty of careless plagiarism. This will be a helpful resource when it comes time to cite sources.

Chapter 5 in WGR

This chapter was very helpful in providing ways to cite papers. Citing has always been something that I have had trouble with even though it is a very important element of writing a paper. It's good to know the exact way to cite something and the WGR will be very useful to me when I am citing my research paper. It is always good to be sure that you have not plagiarized. Also, chapter 5 goes over what makes a source reliable. I think that this is extremely important because not only do you want to be sure that you are giving credit to those that have done the research, but you want to be sure that you are using valid information when informing others on a subject through a research paper. You are not the only one who could be cheating others, but you could be cheated as well by receiving invalid information from an unreliable source. All of the databases on Ball State's virtual library are reliable.

The observers paradox

In chapter five of “The Wadsworth Guide to Research” they start off by telling you the different types of research. Those being: observations, interviews, and surveys. They also give a brief idea as to what each one of those is. When talking about observations, they talk about the “observer’s paradox” which is that the mere presence of the observer is affecting the environment that he or she is observing making it a difficult thing to know whether or not to include it into your research. This is something that I have actually run into in the past. I was in a psychology class a few years ago and we were to go out and conduct observations. The trick was that no one was to know that we were conducting the observation otherwise we could throw off the entire swing of things, in return possibly affecting our own grades. There was one day that I was doing my research and I noticed someone from my class in the same room doing the same thing. We made eye contact, but we both did our best to appear normal and stick to our routines. We both knew that this was in fact not a possibility to remain normal when being under known observation, but we continued with the assignment anyway.
Chapter eight was about knowing and understanding what plagiarism is and how to use resources correctly and legally. This is something that is hard to get around sometimes. You know that you have to cite everything that is in your paper that needs to be cited, but it can be difficult to know exactly what is in your paper that needs to indeed be cited. You can also cite too much and be asked to use just your own words about what you thought they were talking about. You will just need to find a happy medium somewhere in-between.

Batting .500 isn't bad

After reading both chapters I found that material in chapter 8 about plagurism to be much more useful than the information in chapter 5. Plagurism is a serious concern for all students and something that can be very easy to do whether you mean to or not. The part on citing sources was also helpful and something that will really come in handy. Chapter 5 was a strikeout not because the information is bad or they did a poor job of writing it, but I just don't think interviewing witnesses or sending good surveys is really applicable to most of us writing these papers. It was interesting just not sure how relavent the chapter was ,but one out of two isn't bad.

Good information

I thought that the information at hand was really useful on how to explain and breakdown how to cite sources and what it is to plagiarize and what not. It was a lot easier to read than previous chapters and it was nice to read something that explained an issue that could possibly get someone kicked out of school for. I personally think that citing sources is more difficult and strenuous that it needs to be. Too bad it's not as easy as just writing down the title and author and that's it..... but that's not ever going to happen... ha.

Interview Legit?

Chapter 5 was a good review of some ways to do research. Last year in my English class we did an observation very similar to Figure 5.1 in the book. This is a good way of doing things because you can right down your observation and then back a quick side response beside it. It can also be fun to observe things that you are interested in. The next thing they talked about was conducting interviews. The first thing you obviously want to do is make sure the person you are interviewing is a reliable source. If the person you interview is not reliable it is pointless but if you have a good person to interview it can be a great source for information. I think that survey's are great for research paper because it is a good way to collect data to prove your point. Chapter 8 was a lot more about plagiarism. Good thing we found out in the library today that EBSCOHOST cite sources for you!

Once you get it know how to use it

Once you get your information know how to use it and give credit to who you got it from. I great source of information is always comes from people whether you take an interview, a survey, or observation. when doing this you got to take clear notes because it will be the onlying writen down. With information from either of these you got to really look at the data you have gathered and how to use it. this kind of information give you a different touch other then a book or a article I think. When you do go to use it you got to give credit where credit is due. You do not want to copy word for word and not tell the reads who said it first. Even if you reword it and it was theirs first so you must still give them credit. You give credit not only in-text after very has been said in your paper you give more information about what you used. All though this is very time consuming we have to do it cause if I have a great idea or saying I don't want others using it and saying it was theirs. I do wish this was much easier to do giving credit. Adding information like this shows you looked at others and based it on more.

Conducting Research

I thought these chapters were helpful in going through the options of research methods. It gave me more ideas for when i'm researching my topic. The idea of using an interview is something that I think i'd like to explore this semester. In my english course last year we had the chance to incorporate a survey in one of our papers. I think this enhanced all of our papers because it gave us a chance to support our argument. I also liked that plagarism was discussed again. It's nice to continuously be reminded of what is considered plagarism, because I carelessly make mistakes in which some of my writing should be cited and it's not. The more I read about what is considered plagaraism and how to cite, the more I'm not making these careless mistakes.

ch.5

This chapter was a lot more easier to read. I love how they break down the different types of way to do work cited pages. In this chapter they simply don't tell you what to do. Its more like "this is what you should do, and here's how". Although I thought I already knew how to do a work cited page. I found a couple errors that I had been making before just by simply reading the chapter. There are a lot of different ways to cite things and I never realized it. From simply journal articles to government sources. That is really crazy, if I had to use a government source in any of my papers, I probably wouldn't even know where to begin citing it without this chapter. Overall it was a pretty useful chapter, im probably going to refer back to it a lot this semester in english.

How to conduct research...and the dreaded plagiarism

I like how chapter 5 included observation as a part of the research plan. Unlike other research methods that can become boring observation can be fun. This allows a person to be involved in what they're researching so it can be made fun! I also thought including an interview can make the process of research a little less dull. I think it's better to get involved in the research, and the interview option can be something to change it up. The tips for formatting the results of the research will be a helpful guide in the future where the IMRAD acronym can be used. The whole chapter 8 will be of use to me. I have trouble remembering how to cite things properly keeping in mind that if it is done wrong then it could be seen as plagiarism. I thought it was helpful how the two different types of plagiarism were discussed. Finding out that many of the forms of plagiarism that are found are careless plagiarism. This type of plagiarism can be avoided by citing things properly. This being said I want to make sure, knowing that I can use the book, to not let this happen to me.

Writing Shortcuts Are Risky

The point of this blog is to give all students in our class plenty of opportunities to practice developing their own arguments in writing. Writing can't be taught through a lecture or evaluated through quizzes: To become a better writer, you must write--and write often.

Shortcuts are not only useless, but also potentially hazardous to your college career. In "Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in the Digital Age," which appeared in the August 1, 2010 online edition of the New York Times, Trip Gabriel reports that some students use the Internet to take shortcuts, either due to confusion about what constitutes property or because they are unwilling to do the hard work required in learning to compose their own ideas.

Conducting Research

These chapters were much easier to read than the past ones. It explains the process of exploring topics and finding the right one for you. Then it talks about how to develop a research question and how to compose the research for it. These two chapters will be very helpful when it actually comes time for writing the research paper.

It has pictures and diagrams!?!?!

After reading Chapters 3 & 4 I feel even more confident in writing our first paper for the class. Chapter 3 gave ideas on how to start writing a paper. Including generating ideas, making a topic you choose manageable, how to address a purpose and much more! I liked the diagrams too, I must say they were "cute". Chapter 4 talked about secondary resources and the types of resources. Which helped me in my understanding of resources. I don't feel as lost as I was now. And on a simpler note, I liked all of the diagrams and pictures in Wadsworth, which made the reading more enjoyable!

USEFUL

These two chapter were so much more useful to us then anything else we have read so far this year. It actually talked about research. With this information from chapters three and four I feel like I can write a really good research paper. I think that the text book is better than Ball Point. ball Point is just boring. i feel like I am learning something from the text book. This was a very good read.

Maybe this will help me find the needle

I do have to say that Wadsworth Chapter 3 was very helpful in giving me ideas about how to narrow down research topics and forming a research proposal. Chapter 4 in the Wadsworth text was full of helpful websites and other helpful search ideas which will be really nice to go back and look at as I am doing research. This chapter also did a really good job of differentiating between the different research resources and how to determine if they are reliable. After reading this chapter though it definitely got me a little worried with thinking about how hard it's going to be to actually filter out the quality research or needles that I want to use in my paper from the massive amount of possible articles or books aka the haystack. This is where I hope that Wadsworth will really come in handy in not just finding the haystack but, actually sifting through the haystack. Only time will tell if that will be the case.

Chapter 3 & 4

The third and fourth chapters were much more readable than the first two! I thought that everything in chapter three and four, were much more informational than in the first two. I was very grateful for all of the little information things on the sides of the workbook. I thought that that was very helpful! It was very good for me to think about all of the different steps that I need to take in order to begin this huge process. I think I found the information in the colored boxes more useful than the regular text. I also really liked all the examples and comments they had about the research projects. I also liked the part in chapter four about conducting research. Especially since I haven’t done very many research projects like this ever before!

wadsWorth the $40

Chapter three was a quite relative read as Professor Evans and I discussed a few of the concepts this morning. I am currently debating on which facet of sports business I want to write about for our major project. Discussing it with her and reading chapter three as helped me really narrow my choices down. A few items that stuck out to me were the concepts of developing a research question, knowing your knowledge of the topic, and writing a research proposal. “A research question should be clearly stated and provide the specific focus and scope of your research” is how our book defines it. I really like this definition have wrote a few for my narrowed down topic choices. Having an interest in a topic already is a better starting point to doing a research paper, and it makes you more vested then otherwise. The concept of a research proposal certainly felt like another assignment by itself, but it would be great ground work for your project.

Chapter four was really insightful. Looking at all the different perspectives of conducting research has certainly boarding my outlook. I just normally use Google when I doing research check out the top four or five links, I never really cared if the sources where primary or secondary. After reading that section I will be more intent on knowing what kind of sources they are. I always enjoyed how the book show examples by taking apart questions and identified the main “terms” to enhance the search function and results. The last thing I took a look over where syndicated resources, majority of the time when I find information I seem to careless look past the recency of the data.

Overall I enjoyed these reading way more than the previous ones, show as long as they continue I wont mind.

Ball Point CH.4

After reading over chapter 4 of Ball Point, I found the information a lot more useful. The information provided in chapter 1 and 2 was somewhat repetitive. It talked a lot about how to conduct research. When I get ready to do research, I don't really narrow down the material until after the fact. But, Ball Point stated that you should always start with a question. I always started out with an idea and never a question. So I am going to keep that in mind for my future research projects. Ball Point also mentioned Connect your daily life with academics. I never really realized that I did this until I actually read the paragraph. Overall chapter 4 was very imformational instead of boring and repetitive.

Chapter 4

OK, this was much better reading material than chapter 1 and 2. I actually got excited about writing a paper which is very hard to do for me. I feel that this chapter is one that I will revisiting often during the course of this class.

Wadsworth Guide

I thought that the reading from the textbook was much more fruitful than anything from Ball Point was. I got more out of it because it was easier to read, and they explained it more thoroughly. I also liked some of the diagrams that they had in the textbook to show examples of how, or how not to begin the research process. In the textbook they also had questions that you should ask yourself that I found very helpful in thinking about how to begin my work. I enjoyed reading the Wadsworth Guide more than any other textbook that I have ever had. I can see myself using this book often during my writing process. I think that it will be very handy along the way.
While reading the section on the Writing Processes I immediately recognized the Five Canons of Rhetoric that we had talked about in class from the Brigham Young University. However after looking at the website, and what the book had to say about the Five Canons, I thought that the book went into much more detail.

Ball Point vs. Wadsworth

Both of the readings had some similarities but overall I liked the explanations from the Wadsworth Guide (I will refer to this textbook simply as the guide). One of the biggest differences was how they explained that research was situational and the examples they gave in the guide. Ball Point didn't seem to touch on this aspect at all and gave me the impression that all research has basic steps to follow with no exceptions. Ball Point also brings up the question of ethical considerations when conducting research which is not even discussed in the guide. I feel that discussing these two differences deserves some more thought.

I feel that the idea of thinking about how your chosen audience may change or grow as you are doing your research has a lot of merit to it and is ignored in most cases. A good example is this response to our reading assignment. The audience is our classmates and instructor but because our blog is a public forum one of our posts could show up in somebody's internet search. With this aspect in mind we can look at my first paragraph and see that I used familiar language by calling our text book “Wadsworth Guide” instead of by it's full title, “The Wadsworth Guide to Research”. By spelling out the title in my last sentence I just made it possible to expand my audience. The same goes for mentioning Ball Point, unless the reader knows about the Ball State Writing Program they would not understand what Ball Point is and they may have just been searching the internet for information about ink pens.

The idea of ethical considerations in Ball Point may be a little beyond what we, students in ENG 104, really need to worry about since our papers are for the classroom as exercises and not meant for publication. The overall concept is good to keep in mind and may have some bearing on some future classes if anyone decides to move on to graduate school or if you are helping a professor conduct research for a paper that will be published. In the scope of our writing I feel that just using common sense and good judgment will be adequate.

Overall I think being able to use Ball Point and the guide together is the best course of action as they do complement each other and where one text is lacking the other makes up for it.

The ways of research

I feel that chapters one and two in Wadsworth Guide to Research are going to be very helpful. The fact that they give an example for everything that they mention is a great addition. Most things that I have read on writing gives a few examples on what they mean, but this book gives an example on every detail. This book is also written in a way that doesn’t seem to drag on as you read it. I am not saying that it is going to become my top read or my favorite book, but that as far as writing books go, this is my favorite. It is easy on the eyes as well. It is not just black ink on white paper; it has different warm colors that make it pleasing to the eyes. They knew their audience when they were creating this book. In other words, they did their research on it. I did like that Ball Point was basically the same as these two chapters. It did give a bit more detail in how to do quotations, paraphrasing, and summarizing as well as how to format papers. It even goes as far as to teach you the way to format a paper in Microsoft Word. There are many things that I think these two resources are going to be very helpful with. I am actually glad to have these resources at my disposal.

It Just Keeps Getting Better!

After reading Chapter 4 it got me really psyched to want to get to writing my paper. I felt like it explained very simply how to approach our first paper. The chapter basically explained the differences on how we used to write research papers and how it wasn't exactly the right approach. That instead of picking a topic we should be picking a question and go from there. It really makes sense when you think about it too!

It explained that we are doing research everyday by natural curiosity, that if something interests us we gather information about it. According to Hurston academic research is, "poking and prying with a purpose." And I would have to completely agree. Overall after reading this chapter, I feel very comfortable in writing our research paper and actually look forward to doing so!

Styles from the Stylus

I have read through chapters one and two from our text, “The Wadsworth Guide To Research” (Miller-Cochran, R. & Rodrigo, R.). Additionally I have read/reviewed chapter four from our own Ball State Ball Point PDF. I say that I read/reviewed Ball Point, because it basically said most of the same things that our Text Book stated. There where a couple of unique sets of information incorporated into the PDF however. One was the mention of Ethical Considerations and how important those can be. I appreciate this quite a bit considering the fact that I try to live my life honorably and with integrity. The other main topic difference of note, at least to me, was the detail that Ball Point went into considering Interviewing. It is, in my opinion, almost a lost art. With so much information, including interviews, available online most students don’t usually think about going out and interviewing (in person) a subject matter expert on whichever topic they are researching.
Now that I’ve highlighted the different things I liked about the one instructional document, I’ll mention some of the things that hit home about the other. I really appreciated the quote from Aristotle that was found in the text. It stated that Aristotle defined rhetoric as, “finding the available means of persuasion”. Ethical considerations always on my mind, I believe that when writing or speaking we are always in the business of persuading others. Whether it is to convince others of our viewpoint, to do something we think or want them to do, or if we are just trying to convince our audience that we are competent or deserve that “A” in class, we are usually trying to convince or persuade someone of something.
All in all the reading, again, was not as dry or as boring as I had imagined it would be. Usually text books or policy letters are about as interesting as the husk of an ant on the sidewalk. Our textbook, especially, used colors and new styles of printing lists to “liven things up”. This was greatly appreciated by this reader. That is about all I have to say for tonight on the subject of text of Text.

Ball Point Ch. 4: more helpful!

While reading through chapter 4 of Ball Point, I was noticing that it was more helpful and more interesting than chapters 1&2. In this chapter I liked many of the things that were said, I can tell that while researching all semester I will be going back to this for a reference. I enjoyed how in the beginning they pointed out that they don't want us to do research that feels repetitive and boring but rather about something that catches our interest, and fascinates the student. I love the fact that we will get to choose because I have never had this option in the past, and I can finally work on a topic that interests me. I also thought it was interesting how the chapter pointed out how we do research daily, and the example that was used was helpful. One of the main things that I found interesting was the research/writing/wrap-up process was laid out. Most of the time in the past when I have done research, I was not given examples or helpful hints to help me along the way. They broke down how to collect research and the difference between paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting. Basically this chapter was really helpful, and I think it will be helping many of us out through the semester.

learning to ride a bike

I always hated when a teacher said we are going to do a research paper. I never knew where to start or how I going to get there. Its just like learning to ride a bike as long as someone holds the back of it while I get started once I get it you can let go. I never realized I do research every day just by answering questions. When you say it like that and it doesn't sound that bad . I also come to see that maybe before I was skipping in the processes of writing. I jump right into researching using it to help me find my way. If only I did the prewriting then maybe it be a little easier or I would have more guidance. I have always been one who needs guidance , so I go right to finding an outline and filling it out with question I need to answer or something that needs to be covered. I didn't realize I was doing research. Reading about research papers and how they should be done made me realize that if I change a couple little things writing one for me may become a much better experience for me.

What am I Doing?

I'm not sure if I'm doing this over the right chapter, but here it goes. "Viewing research as the process of asking a question that interests you." This is a very interesting way of looking at a research paper. It makes the process more exciting, you actually discover things that interest you this way. This allows you to form your own opinions on the research, rather than regurgitating someone elses information. For our paper, being able to research whatever topic we want will make it much easier and more interesting. We will be able to ask and research questions that we are truely concerned with. Finding the right question won't be easy though. It will need to be open ended so that we can explore the subject, but narrow enough to finish on time. Gathering the information will be the toughest task, but once that is done analyzing and interpreting the information will be fun.

ballpoint becomes useful

I found chapter 4 on ballpoint much more interesting than the previous chapters like pretty much everyone else who has posted. The one thing I really liked most about the chapter was the example showing what a paper should look like written in MLA style. My interest with this is largely because for me it much easier to see an example of how it is supposed to look in actual practice rather than to have it explained. This is something that i might actually refer back to during the semester. The distinctions that ballpoint makes between summerising, quoting, and paraphrasing are also very helpful. They give some good examples of how to set up quotes as to not make them cumbersome or out of place. Overall, this ballpoint chapter is clearly established and maintained throughout, sophisticated, and appealing to the audience so according to the ballpoint ruberic this gives the chapter an A.

Getting Started

In Chapter 4 it talks a lot about how to get started on your papers. It starts off with talking about generating ideas. This is very important because without an idea you have no paper. You would have absolutely nothing to write about. My favorite was to find ideas for paper is to brainstorm. I usually just sit down and think about something that interest me. The next thing it talks about is drafting. Usually teachers require more than one draft to a paper so we do this anyway. The first draft is a good way to get an idea of what you are going to put in your paper. I usually like to have someone read over it after that and see what corrections I need to make. Third, they talk about organization. Obviously when writing a paper you need to have your sentences and paragraphs in some sort of order or it will make no sense. Next is revising. Going through your paper and making sure you didn't make any mistakes is a very good idea. Chapter 4 of Ball Point was a good reminder on how to get started on your papers.

A Little Late

The purpose of Chapter 1 in ballpoint, was to specify requirements for English 104. It was a bit boring because it was basically a syllabus. I really didn't get too much out of it, I know what the requirements are for passing. This isn't my first rodeo. However, this chapter did review what each of the following chapters were going to cover. It also reviewed the fundamental beliefs of the English department at BSU. The university believes the writing and reading serves you in four ways: professionaly, democratically, critically, and personally. In general I view these beliefs as being true, but especially how writing and reading serves you personally. They certainly allow us to discover our passions, and what are beliefs are, as well as to compare them with views from others.
Ball State recently revised the course goals for this class. They said the changes were made in order to emphasize the rhetorical nature of writing and reading. The style in which one writes, and how they structure their writing can be just as important as content. Another goal of Ball State was to increase unity and coherence among courses. To me this was chosen just to look good on their website. I guess I just don't understand how taking this course is going to increase unity among my other courses. In my opinion, things are often made more difficult than they need to be. Ball State's philosophy could have been made much less elaborat. In reality when it comes to their philosophy on writing, who really cares?

Ballpoint: Where's the Fun?

For most in this class, this isn’t our first experience with Ballpoint. We heard all about it when we took English 103 and for that reason are somewhat “familiar” with it. After sitting down and actually reading the content in chapters 1 and 2, I feel that Ballpoint is a double-edged sword. This entity that gives the English Department the structured template for all its classes has also, in my mind, limited the uniqueness and spontaneity that make some other classes on campus more enjoyable.
I like to begin with good news; likewise I will start with the good elements of Ballpoint. Ballpoint is a great tool and stands as the outline for all English classes. It is straight and to the point, highlighting area of importance that Ball State deemed worthy of being covered in its classes. From how to research, documenting sources, structure of an essay, and even to the writing process itself, Ballpoint lays out Ball State’s outlook on how/what to teach.
Unfortunately, the same thing that gives the writing program its great structure is also killing the interest in each specific class. I have taken a total of four different English courses at Ball State. That statement is a bit deceiving in the fact that those four classes didn’t seem different at all. In my eyes, it seemed that Ballpoint limited how much a professor could modify the class content to add a personal touch and create interest in the class.
Personally, I have never had a decent amount of interest in the English courses here at Ball State. Some of this is due to my distaste for English and literature to begin with, but I do believe the blandness and “routine” feeling of the English classes contributes to that just as well.

August 31, 2010 9:00 PM 

Most Interesting Chapter Thus Far

I particularly didn't find anything interesting in this chapter, except part 4. It was a good review on paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting your work. I think often students don't grasp the concept of the difference between the three, and it's important for them to practice ways to incorporate these concepts in their papers. I actually think this is the most beneficial chapter of Ballpoint that i've read thus far. I think this is definitely a chapter that will be useful to refer back to in the future when writing my papers if i'm stuck on quoting. I can also never remember how to do the heading on MLA, and I really like how they give a sample paper showing you how everything should be set up. This chapter addresses a lot of problems students have when constructing a research paper, and shows you how to properly approach them. I remember how to cite the basics, such as single authors, or journals, but I often forget how to cite specific things, like literary novels or poems. Ball State providing students Ballpoint with this information in it, gives students easier access to how to do specific citations and something to refer to when constructing their paper.

Reflectoin on Chapter 4 of Ball Point

The opening paragraph of Chapter 4 of Ball Point is spot on when it says that students either take a head on approach to writing a research paper or fearing the concept. Ball Point makes it sound so easy when it says, "When writing a ―Research Paper,‖ you
generally pick a topic, find a list of sources that provide information about the topic, and then
proceed to summarize what the sources say by using quotes from those authors." It honestly made me feel less scared of writing research paper, because I am one of those people who is afraid of the concept.

I like the fact that the Writing Program at Ball State has changed the aspect of writing a "Research Paper" to asking a question that interests you and doing research over it to answer it. Coming at a research project from that stand point is much easier for me, and I will assume it is for most people. It gives you more control. You're not given a topic and told to research it, you have free rein of the project. You find yourself enjoying learning more about the question that you picked.

I really liked that we are given the process of research when it comes to rhetoric. I also liked that we are given ways to "formalize our curiosity". Learning how to conduct an interview was also very helpful, because that is a source that I overlook most of the time because I was not sure how to do it. The Incorporating Quotes section also helped me out, because I feel that I have never incorporated quotes the way that it says to on Ball Point.

The MLA format is the format that I learned to write papers in while I was in high school, in Advanced Placement English. Although I have experience with it, I do not know it like the back of my hand, so I feel that having an example to refer to will be extremely helpful.

Chapter four was a lot more helpful for me than chapters 1, 2, and 3. It was still extremely dry, but there are a lot more points of reference that I can see myself using.

Cute Textbook

I must admit this was the first time i have opened my english book. My first reaction to the book was that i loved the colors, and how it was decorated. Not to mention the floppy pages were easy and fun to flip. Aside from that, after reading chapters one and two i realized it's exactly like any other english book i've had. The first chapter is all about preparing for research, which everyone has learned since the 5th grade. It talks about how research projects develop in a situation from a question that someone asks. It describes how to organize your information into graphs and webs to make your paper flow and make sense.

The second chapter is directed more towards research and the writing process. In the book it says that all writing has a rhetorical context. Admittedly i did not know what "rhetorical" meant so i looked it up. The book continues on to give examples of "research in action" which shows a nice snapshot of a man standing with a weird smile on his face. I learned the process of writing is: prewriting, researching, drafting, peer reviewing, revising, editing, proofreading, and publishing. Well, i shouldn't say i learned that information, because actually, i've known that for years. Im not saying that i know everything there is to know about writing, but these chapters were common sense to me, probably why they were chapters one and two.

Really short, really nice!

Chapter four is very short and I do not know if I am going to be able to get at least 300 words for this one. For me this information is important, but it seemed as if we as college students should already know this ( I’m not saying that I fully understand the concepts, just saying that we’ve all heard this spiel before).

Personally I really like using “quotations” when I do research projects or “anything” else that I want to emphasize on. I feel that having direct quotes from people with ethos on the topic I am researching is the best route to take. When I read other peoples material, especially blogs I want to make sure the people who I am reading are credible. For instance I follow this blog called, www.avc.com and when the gentleman writes about topics he usually provides his background experience, uses direct quotes from experts, and/or provides links on the topic being discussed (AVC.com is a blog written by a Venture Capitalist in New York). If any of you are interested in entrepreneurship or business I highly recommend this blog, it is pretty dense, but it’s very insightful.

If you think I liked “quotations” I LOVE paraphrasing. Ok, not really, but I do find it very helpful when I am doing research and majority of the information is longer than what I would care to use for a direct quote. I feel paraphrasing brings a strong context to my papers, but certainly not the same as direct quotes, because let’s be honest I am not an expert in anything, really.

Summarizing is something I like to have when I do research. I usually do not care to read an entire book/article/ or whatever and find out it wasn’t at all what I was looking for. So, I really like how the ERIC database provides an abstract for us before we have to read it.

Well, I did it. I got over 300 hundred words, so I’m done.

A really long syllabus.

In Ball Point chapter one there is a brief breakdown in how the e-book will play out and something that caught my eye, the Foundational Beliefs. Professionally, Democratically, Critically, and Personally, these are the ways the Ball Point e-book said that they were trying to enhance me, this got me thinking. Though I am not going to be a journalist or an author I began to ponder as to how this course would help me in my future career as an Administrator. Professionally this course will enhance my ability to write corporate letters and emails, job proposals, and speeches. Democratically it will help me become more politically correct and allow me to participate in the public more because of the new found confidence in my skills. Critically I will become a better researcher and thinker, allowing me to better hold my ground in debates and company meetings. Personally it will allow me to become more knowledgeable, so that maybe past research will help me with a future problem, work and non work related. Chapter two brought about some more interesting reading that chapter one did, it started off with rhetorical writing, which is a claim that supports a claim. now usually when I think of rhetoric's my mind wanders to Pulp Fiction's "What does Marcellus Wallace look like", so when that and the definition given by the Ball Point book did not match I had to read on. The e-book goes on to explain inquiry and its relationship to rhetorical situations, in that it is hard to have rhetoric writing without first inquiring the topic you are writing about. The end of chapter two talked about the role of reflection, and how it is very important for writing. By using reflection it helps us to understand the situation better if we are the reader, and helps us make sure the reader can understand us if we are the writer. So far the Ball Point book seems thorough , even if it is a bit long winded.