Blog 12 March 19, 2008

When asked how it feels to finally have the complete 1st draft done of my paper, I can honestly say that I feel relieved and yet at the same time still somewhat stressed about it! I know that the majority of the work is done yet I still have a lot of the reformatting and citing to work.. I hate to do this so this gives me problems sometimes.. Well most of the time! Even with the Reference Guide I have issues mostly because it is so big & MLA is a confusing format at times! haha..I also feel that with reading other students paper, my paper can use some touching up here and there which makes it longer or sometimes shorter. And I am always editing what I have already written and adding more sources.. Last time I checked I was up to 21 so now I’m not even sure.. This is a positive thing because the more references I have the stronger my paper will be.

So even though my paper the 1st draft is complete there is a lot of work to be done & I can finally understand why they say writing is a process.. I always thought it was true for people who were over achievers or “suck ups,” but now I see that it is applied to everyone and can also be applied to more than just this classes paper.

Blog 11 March 19, 2008

Reflection is something everyone does after something specific in their life has happened.. In the case of the Research Writing class that I am currently taking I feel that it has been a large “eye opener” on what it really takes to write a good paper! It takes more than one draft, many sources (including the dreaded refereed journals!), and a lot of input and advice given from others such as peers, friends and family members. As much work as we have had to do for this class I think that it all has been a positive aspect & the schedule that was set on the syllabus was a large help!! It is a very helpful & positive thing I feel because I’m such a procrastinator & having a date that things are due is helpful to me so I have more initiative to get it done on time!!    Prof Marlen is  one of the best professors/teachers Ive ever had!! He totally understands whats going on in our lives (as in he understands we are college students, the weekends are rough & the breaks are full of parties! and that this class isnt the only one we have).. This is such a great thing because its shows that he is a real person who is understanding not someone just doing their job to make money to live.. You can tell he really loves his job & what he does which is something we all should be looking for as we grad from college!!

Blog 10: 3 Changes March 3, 2008

Now since that we finished our first rough draft of our paper, we have been able to talk about what is wrong and also what is writing within our papers. This is a positive apect when it comes to research writing.

Three changes that I will be making due to comments and input that I got from my classmates and other friends, are to make my paper more personal, try a different type of formatting in certain parts of my paper to make my paper more easily read and to add captions to my paper to help visualize what I am explaining.

To make my paper more personal and less informal I will be using peoples first names such as Mike instead of Mr. Michael Sorace. This will allow my readers to also feel like they know Mike instead of just some guy I am writing about. It will let my readers feel more like they know him.

Secondly I have to work on the format of my paper, this will let my citations be correct and will also allow me to correctly analyze my information. This will also permit me to have the right formatting that in the end will allow my readers to understand my paper. Which it will also let my readers understand my paper more clearly.

Finally I will add more than one photo in my research paper. Adding this is a positive because it will allow my readers to actually visualize what I am describing. This actually will let my readers see what I am talking about instead of just having to make a mental photo. I feel like the photos will make my paper more emotional and help with my discussion.