Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

This last chapter is about plagiarism and how to avoid it. Throughout my high school career our school took plagiarism very seriously and we had a program called turnitin.com, which would trace our paper for any worked that could be plagiarized. The best ways to avoid plagiarism would be to learn how to correctly paraphrase and summarize the information that you gather. Also by using the bibliographies form the last chapters you can avoid plagiarism and keep track of your sources.

I also learned a lot about how to use brackets and ellipsis to add words and delete words when you are quoting from a source, in order to make in fit into your sentences better. I used these a lot in high school. I was always really good at making my quotations blend but paraphrasing has always been a little bit more difficult. Paraphrasing is I way to write the authors or sources information in to your own words. Some of the things that they emphasize on is never say more than the source does, always use your own words, and never paraphrase to present your thesis topic or sentence. Another thing that it talks is about is how to summarize. This is different from paraphrasing because summarizing expresses on the main point on the source and not the entire material. After reading this chapter I think I just need to focus on always citing my sources and make sure that none of it is entirely someone else words.

Researching the Web Wisely

For every project that I have ever done in school and paper written I have always used the Internet for information and sources to prove my claim and gather evidence. However, this chapter talks about how the web can be a good source of information but at the same time anything can be put on the Internet, which makes some information false or bias. It talked a lot about the search engines Google and Yahoo. Personally I prefer Google because I am more familiar with it and have always used it. When it mentioned keywords when searching for your topic I think that this was kind of broad because in the past you sometimes have to be very specific with what you are looking for. Google will bring up what they think you want but a lot of times it is not exactly what you are looking for unless you use specific keywords. When it was talking about search directories I thought it was very interesting because I have never heard of them or used them for anything before. It is a cool way to start off with a broad topic and then move on to one that is more specific just by clicking on certain categories. It suggested a search engine called Dogpile which I looked at and found it to be very helpful. Once you find a website that relates to your topic it is very important that you can evaluate it and make sure it has reliable information. If the website it .edu, .org, .gov, or .ca you know that most of the time if there are sources cited that information can me trustworthy. Also, if they are from a print source or expert authors, the website is usually reliable. It also gives you a list of how to tell if a website might not be trustworthy. After reading this chapter I feel more confident in search for website and making sure they are a site I can get true information from.

Developing a Search Strategy

Reading the chapter on search strategies was very helpful to help write and think of ideas for my research paper. I learned a lot learned a lot about search strategies, which is different ways in which you gather information to answer your research question. A source is the first thing that you should look at when researching because it gives you evidence and proof of the claim your are trying to proof and a secondary source is not as reliable because it is someone’s opinion or ideas. When the chapter talked about surveying a group of people to back up a source or evidence that you have, I thought it was really cool and interesting because for our final in math last year it was all about surveys and bias. We got to see that you can’t just rely on surveys to proof your point or get a clear answer. One thing that I don’t really have any experience in that I learned about was interviewing. The book gave a lot of good information about how to take notes during an interview and what to look for in order to establish if it is trustworthy information. One thing that is really important is too have a working bibliography in order to keep all your sources that you looked at for your research. It is easy just to keep them on note cards and rearrange them later into the final draft. Going off the bibliography there is something called an annotated bibliography, which also includes a brief summary of the source. I’ve never done this style before but I can see how it would help a lot on looking back to the website for another information. The last part of this chapter talked about how to take content notes. It suggested that you keep the notes on index cards so you can easily relate them to the bibliography items, which I thought was a really good idea. This chapter defiantly helped clear up question and I learned a lot about my search strategy.

Assessment Portfolio

After reading about the Assessment Portfolio I am more aware what is going to be expected from me and I feel more prepared going into it. However, I have never been that confident in my writing skills so this portfolio is intimidating to me. I usually have a hard time putting my thoughts out on paper, expressing what I am really trying to say, and connecting it to a deeper meaning. Reading the intro paragraph it summarizes everything that we have been doing in class, such as drafts and revisions, working with our peers to better our essays, and meeting with our teacher. I have found all of this to be really helpful in making my writing better.

I kind of feel better knowing that in order to even submit your portfolio you have to have a C- or better and I know that I can pull that off. There needs to be 2-4 essays in there and 2 of those will then be graded. I think I will have a hard time choosing which 2 because I have to determine which ones will get me a combined score of 8 or better.

One thing that I am worried about a lot is the cover letter. The length of two to three pages is a little scary to me because that a lot of reflecting that you have to do as a writer. I know that there’s a lot to include such as, demonstrating my self-awareness, strengths and weaknesses, knowledge of writing, and improvements as a writer, however, I think that I will have trouble coming up with that much information on each. I need to write it to the committee and be able to prove to them I have developed as a writer and have learned a lot of my style of writing.

After reading about all the information to submit my assessment portfolio successfully I have mix feelings of confidence and intimidation. I know that I can turn in a good portfolio but I understand that I am going to have to put in a lot of time and dedication.

Readings

General Apache. This story was really interesting to read because it talked about people writing about what they want to write about. I can relate because this is the first year in an English class that I am actually able to pick the topic and write what I want to write about. This piece was a reflective paper that was is written from the teachers point of view who actually reflected back on his students lives in order to write what he wanted. When they were talking more about the Vietnam War I could not really relate to what was going on or how he dealt with it afterwards but in the sense that his perspective on life changed, I can relate to that. We all have many experiences from our past that we are able to reflect to and make a drastic change on how we look at life and other people. Even if going back to those memories are hard we all learn a lesson and feel better after exploring them.

Simplicity. This story to me was very relatable because I think that writing and English is very hard. However, unlike the first one this one did not seem so reflective as the first. It did have a genre being simple writing and clear statements, but nothing that changed someone’s view on something meaningful. But, after reading it I did like it because it showed that sentences are a lot more understandable when the are short and clear. I think this also relates to life in the sense that the more simple you make things, the easier it is to understand. Thoreau is one of my favorite writers and the transcendentalist idea to live simple and off of nature is always something that has interested me. To live without the drama, difficulties, competition, and detailed days would make life so much simpler and easy to find who you are and appreciate the things around you. In regards to this story, I agree that writers will beat them selves up over making everything perfect but in truth all they need to do is make it simple.