Research Reflection

source: jholko.com

       This structure of this research paper was similar to other research papers I have done in the past, and because of that, I feel like I got the most out of the topic I chose. I had a few goals at the beginning of the semester, during this research paper I learned that I still have work to do on both of those goals, but I’ve moved in the right direction. I am proud of this paper, especially the topic that I chose. I think it’s past time people became more comfortable with mental illness, and this is one of those steps. My computer skills haven’t changed much, but I did discover that a school database can be helpful. I felt like I did well on this research paper, and I hope it is reflected in my final work.

I had a few goals at the begging of the semester. I wanted to learn how to write stronger thesis statements, and I wanted to become generally more comfortable with writing essays in general. I feel like I’m still working on both those goals, but they’re both things I think I’ll always be working on. I didn’t seem to discover a whole lot of new information on the topic, but I did find a few fun facts. I knew the sources existed, but I didn’t know there were so many of them so that was an interesting thing to find out. It reminds me that if I’m going to do it for myself I really need to look into which organization I do it through.

I feel like the topic of my paper makes me very proud because it’s something I’ve noticed for a little bit and I don’t think enough people can tell the difference between the two, or really care to. I think mental health has a lot of stigma attached to it anyway, so trying to take some of that away felt really good. I found the one section on “invisible disabilities” that really stuck with me. I loved the term and will be using it in the future. I’m proud of my ability to use larger, more intricate words without them sounding out of place. I think my teacher will be proud of my topic choice. 

I have always felt comfortable with my computer skills. I don’t think this research paper really changed that at all. I suppose I felt more comfortable because I had the database from Front Range to use, so I didn’t have to worry about where to find sources. I enjoyed researching even more about the complexities of understand therapy dogs as opposed to other service dogs. I disliked that it was still kind of hard to find a lot of information, meaning that people still aren’t really doing anything about it. Overall, this was a fairly easy topic to research because I was so interested in it. The hardest part is that, like I have stated before, there isn’t a whole lot of information to find. I didn’t discover any helpful research hints to share. Except maybe that having a school with a scholarly database can make things simpler, so try to utilize that if you need it.

-Kristen Skuba

Rubric Criteria

1.

I have been working more on my academic tone and making sure that it sounds professional. Also the structure of each individual paragraph could be more organized.

2.

source: fisherprice.com

I noticed I need to go through and make sure that all of my paragraphs and statements are actually necessary to my argument.

3.

I need to work on having a stronger thesis and conclusion. I know that they are there but they aren't as prominent as they should be.

-Kristen Skuba

3 Ways of Improvement

Improvements of Mine:

source: ddubcustomsportswear.com

1. I made basic grammar/spelling edits.

2. I added a works cited page.

3. I changed the wording the make it more clear.

Improvements of Summers:

1. She added more information on growth hormones. 

2. She added more clear distinction between "all-natural" and organic.

3. She fixed basic grammar and spelling mistakes.

-Kristen Skuba

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

source:1.bp.blogspot.com

Ethos-

Ethos is when someone with high "credibility" speaks about a product. People are more likely to listen to people who are more widely known, which is why celebrities are often in commercials and seen sponsoring clothes and accessories. Even if they don't actually talk about the product, being seen together at the same time can greatly boost interest. 

Support Bits:

1. Name any celebrities that people are likely to know of that have support animals.

2. State how they have helped other big names like scientists and such.

3. Name any famous support animals.

Pathos-

Pathos is the use of emotion to convince people to feel one way or another. It can often times be used in things like debates. Someone will strike fear into people to get them to buy a product. Or make people feel like they'll be closer with their family if they buy this product or do this thing. It works really well, since people are such emotional beings. 

Support Bits:

1. Talking about how distraught people can be if their support animals is removed from them or dies.

2. Talking about how support animals need their people too, and will feel a loss if they are separated. 

3. Telling stats of people's psychological improvement with their support animals.

Logos-

Logos is my personal favorite. It is hard facts and evidence to support what you are saying. Logos is researching and preparing valid and intellectual arguments to support your point. An important aspect of logos is that it is well-structured. 

Support Bits:

1. Stats of how many people have support animals. 

2. Stats from that database that tells of how many support animals do specific things.

3. How accessible the program is, cost/eligibility. 

-Kristen Skuba

Chapter 16

photo: alisonbrewin.com

Personal Reaction:

I thought this chapter was a good chapter to keep in mind as I move through the year. I think it has some helpful information. For the most part, there isn't a whole lot that it helps me with personally. Except maybe the part about evaluating sources. I think that's important for people to keep in mind whenever they're on the internet, not just when they're writing a paper. 

Professional Reaction:

As a student I thought this chapter was incredibly helpful. It was written in a good way for a student to be able to come back to the chapter and find whatever information they need. The most important part to me as a student was the same thing that was most important to me personally, the evaluating the sources. It was great about that, informing the reader of many ways to question the authenticity and credibility of a potential source. 

-Kristen Skuba

Grammar Video

By: Lucas Calderon, Clayton Peppler, Summer Eisert-Wiemelt, Eugenia Lehman, & Kristen Skuba

About: Double Negatives, Personification, Adverbs, Pronouns, & Hyperboles

Evaluating the Internet

Part One

Impressions-

Information: 

   This website has a lot of helpful information starting with some general facts and list of disabilities to get an emotional support dog recommendation from a medical practitioner. The website includes two important sections titled Living With Your Emotional Support Dog, and Flying With Your Emotional Support Dog. These two sections give very important information as to how those processes would change with an emotional support dog. The site is good for letting people know if they should have an emotional support dog, and how it would change their situation if their dog was registered.
Credibility (based on URL, advertising, links): This website appears to be very credible. Its URL has not only US in the title, but is finished with a .org, both of these things make it appear to be a professional website. There are absolutely no advertisements, which- in my opinion- is a good sign for a website's credibility. It doesn't appear as if it is just trying to bring an audience or make money, it just wants to be informative. There are only a few links on this page, all to pages that are a part of the same website. They have an FAQ page, a contact page, a home page, an information page, and a register page.

Gather Information- 

General Criteria Guidelines:
   1. The site clearly states which association it is giving you information about. The information on the site appears to be extremely appropriate for the purpose of the site.
   2. The purpose of the site is to inform people who are considering registering their dog as an emotional support dog. It informs them about whether they are qualified and how it would change things. The information is very factual, it does not feel biased or opinionated in any way.
   3. The site has no ads on it. It appears to be funded in other ways, or a part of an organization with a lot of money. The lack of advertising does influence the site, it makes it feel very professional and informative, almost like reading a pamphlet.
   4. The site does not claim to provide or describe the results of an academic study.
   5. The information on the site can be verified on other websites, however I don't know why you would since that is the official site and you can sign up for the registry on that website.
   6. The material is not covered in super depth, but it gives you all the information you need so it does not feel like anything is left out.
   7. The material feels incredibly appropriate for print publication, as I said it feels like it could be a pamphlet.

Select/Embed-

Emotional Support Dogs have given people hope and support for many years now. They are not like other support dogs and are not trained for specific tasks or behaviors. According to US Dog Registry "They are meant solely for emotional stability and unconditional love."(Information on Emotional Support Dogs) This means that any dog can be an emotional support dog, as long as their human has the necessary disability. Unlike most support dogs, emotional support dogs are based around their humans qualifications, not their own. 

MLA Citation: 

United States Dog Registry. Information on Emotional Support Dogs. United States Dog Registry.                           2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. 

*wouldn't let me do a hanging indent*

Part Two

Evaluate-

The authors appear to have an education and general background in dogs. I don't see any specific qualifications that would make me think they know a whole lot about this specific topic, but it's pretty straight forward so I believe that they have done their research based on the field they are in. 

Compare-

While the site was pretty basic and just told about the qualifications and the changes that happen, the journal spoke more about how it is happening and affecting various things throughout the country. It talks about the different types of assistance dogs, besides just emotional. This journal is more about the registration process. This site also goes into the specifics of what each assistant dog is meant to do. 

Record-

The journal has a resource called "The Early Evolution of Domestic Dog" in American Science, by Morey DF. 

Write-

Yamamoto, Mariko. "Registrations of Assistance Dogs in California for Identification Tags: 1999-2012". PLoS One. 19 Aug. 2015. 5. EBSCO Host. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. 

*wouldn't let me do a hanging indent*

-Kristen Skuba

photo: www.dogtime.com

Chapter 14: Argumentation

Personal Reaction:

My personal reaction to this chapter is that is was long. Really long. While long, it was also packed with information. There was so much within the chapter so that, although it was long, it didn't feel overly repetitive. The end of the chapter is full of examples of argumentative essays which I think is very helpful because if I decide I need to see what one really looks like, I have a variety of examples to choose from.

Professional Reaction:

One of the most important things discussed in chapter 14 is the development of an argumentative thesis. It shows you how to make sure that your thesis has the deciding factors of an argumentative essay. The chapter, while very long, was also very informative. After reading I felt better prepared for an essay like an argumentative essay. Another important thing the chapter discusses is the kinds of evidence, these are important because an argumentative essay is only respectable if it has solid evidence. The chapter discusses the different types of evidence and how they can be more or less convincing. It is important for students to know these things because without this knowledge they will be unsuccessful at writing argumentative essays. 

-Kristen Skuba

photo: brilliant-essay.com

Blog Review 2

1. Discuss:

A. The blog I chose to take notes on was technogorge.wordpress.com. The first thing I noticed is that the authors of the blog were not clearly visible. I wanted to name them in my notes, but I couldn't find them without clicking into each individual post. I also noticed that you couldn't read the entire post without opening a "read more" tab. This, in my opinion, makes people less likely to open and finish the article. The colors of the blog were nice. I liked the fonts, but noticed that the titles were much larger than the body paragraphs. I think the colors and the picture they chose for their header perfectly represent what I feel they were trying to create with the name TECHNOGORGE.

B. It is hard to really complete this step without the rest of my group mates. However, I was inspired the change the color palette a bit of the blog. Without my group I would not do it, but comparing their colors to ours makes outs feel much harder on the eyes. 

2. Plan: 

The biggest change I would want to make is the color scheme. If it were up to me, it would be changed to something more subtle. I do like the color, it just is hard to have as the whole screen, maybe we could invert the colors and have the background a white or light color and the text as a dark read, I think that would make it easier to look at for more time without strain from the red. 

3. Write:

   TECHNOGORGE, from first view, is beautiful. The colors are not only suited with each other but they are also easy on the eyes and the computer monitor. I liked the fonts they chose, however I felt that the titles were too large for the size of the body text. The page feels very nice, it is not too busy. In fact, it may not be busy enough. A few things I would hoped to have found seemed to be missing. One that stood out most was the lack of the authors, or any real explanation of the blogs purpose apart from a small subtitle that reads "Wasting Time in the 21st Century". Apart from those two, there are apparently no tabs that would really be worth while clicking. The only tabs relevant to the blog are the recent posts ones and those posts are all at the beginning of the webpage itself. 

   This blog does an overall good job of meeting the blog quality criteria. Apart from the few things that I've noted missing, they seem to do a very good job making sure it has what it needs to be respectable and informative. They have fonts that are easy to read, and authors who can write well. They seem to lack visuals for most of their posts (either they aren't there, or you have to 'read more' to see them), I think visuals are very important and the fact that this blog has so few makes it feel too wordy. 

   Overall, I liked this blog. It's better than expected for people our age. The things that are missing don't really take away from the content of the blog itself, but more the ease-of-use of the blog. I think the blog looks and feels modern and I think it would have appeal to the audience they seem to be reaching for. Apart from the few things they overlooked, they did an exceptional job.

-Kristen Skuba

photo:kenstonlocal.org

Eugenia's Thesis Outline

Original Thesis:

"Political campaigns are more about the mediation circus than about the essence of the candidates or the solutions offered to the country's problems."

My Points:

#1: Politicians avoid answers and instead twist questions back towards what makes them look good. Evasive.

#2: Surround themselves with only their supporters so they look more supported. Deceitful. 

#3: Verbally attack those who are against them. Dramatic.

My Conclusion:

Politics are more of a popularity contest than about the issues and well-being of the country.

-Kristen Skuba

photo: assignmenteditor.com

Logical Fallacy #1

Jumping to a Conclusion:

Jumping to a conclusion is when someone comes up with a generalization and states it factually without adequate evidence to do so.

How to avoid it: 

Make sure you have all the information you need. Don't make assumptions without having credible facts to back them up.

-Summer Eisert-Wiemelt, Eugenia Lehman, Lucas Calderon, Clayton Peppler, Kristen Skuba

photo: thefreelancereport.com

Thesis Statement: Exemplification Essay

Topic:

The ways that Alice in Wonderland characters represent emotions, not drug use.

Thesis:

"Alice in Wonderland has been connected to drugs for years. While there is some evidence to that, the stories actually appear to be based more on a little girl dealing with emotions manifested in the form of various characters."

-Kristen Skuba

photo: wondersofdisney2.yolasite.com

Chapter Eight: Exemplifications

Personal Reaction:

This chapter, while slightly boring, was easy to get through and I felt that it was relatively informative. Since exemplification essays are not as common in high school, it was good to get an idea for what it was made up of before having to do my own.

Professional Reaction:

Chapter 8 is a good way to see how an exemplification essay is done. It does a good job of leading the student through what it takes to make an admirable exemplification essay. It gives great tips on how much information you actually need to have in your essay, it also helps students with starting their planning for their essay.

-Kristen Skuba

photo: mrsstanley.com

Just Walk On By Comprehension Questions

By:

Clayton Peppler, Lucas Calderon, Eugenia Lehman, Summer Eisert-Wiemelt, and Kristen Skuba

Comprehension

1. The woman in the introduction paragraph is labeled as a victim because the people he is talking about commonly victimize themselves once they see him. We think he did it because it is a good hook.

2. By "alter public space" he means his race has the ability to create instant tension and fear in those around him. 

3. Staples walks the street at night because he has insomnia and can't sleep.

4. The young powerless men are more likely to become thugs because it makes them feel powerful and like they are real men, instead of the children that Staples describes them as. 

5. Staples attempts, and succeeds, at making himself seem less threatening by giving people space and whistling a tune to seem at ease. 

Purpose and Audience

1. The thesis is "It was in the echo of that terrified woman's footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I'd come into- the ability to alter public space in ugly ways." He implies his thesis instead of directly stating it is because of his race. 

2. Staples uses logic and emotion during this essay, we think it is appropriate.

3. Staples assumes his audience has a similar pre-conception as the "victim" in his intro paragraph. He challenges it by giving multiple examples of not only how he doesn't belong to this stereotype, but how he also goes out of his way to make sure people are comfortable with his presence. 

4. He is trying to get the reader interested, and we think he succeeds. Hook, line, and sinker.

Style and Structure

1. Staples mentions Norman Podhoretz because he wrote an essay called "My Negro Problem- and Ours". He brings it up to show the lengths that people will go to in order to prove the fact that black men are "dangerous". He could make the same point without referencing the essay, but it wouldn't be as strong.

2. An anecdote is an effective way to start an exemplification essay. We think this is a proper strategy for this style of essay and that he did a good job with it.

3. Staples presents plenty of examples to support his thesis, they are very representative of his point. He could not have given much more convincing examples.

4. The examples are presented in what seems to be chronological order. We think this is an effective order because it makes it more personal, like a life story.

5.Thug:

  -Gangster

  -Hoodlum

  -Delinquent

  -Gang Member

  -Punk

  -Goon

  -Ruffian

All these words have a negative connotation and brings to mind images of bad people.

Journal Entry

Lucas: "I have been in similar, but not exact situations."

Clayton: "I have not been perceived as a threat."

Eugenia: "I haven't had that situation happen to me. However, I have felt very threatened before."

Summer: "I have felt threatened in public before."

Kristen: "I have felt a little threatened in public before, but I haven't felt like too much of a threat."

Writing Workshop

3. Staples observation is very accurate as far as people's desire to be important and powerful. He means that people are willing to be immoral in order to feel powerful or intimidating.

Combining the Patterns

Several examples wouldn't have necessarily impacted it in a negative or positive way.

photo: ourtrivialtales.com

Thesis Thought Process- Dogs and Human Emotions

"Dogs, like humans, feel a wide range of emotions with positive and negative effects."
Draft: not very descriptive.

"Dogs feel a wide range of emotions, like humans they have feelings ranging from excited to depressed and everything in between."
Final: Liked the length and the way it read.

LifeHacker Review

   Out of 10, we gave this blog a 3. We did not like this blog because we found it overall hard to navigate and its lack of organization within the posts makes it hard to find topics of your interest. We feel like the idea of this blog was great, however the execution took away from the quality of the idea. Maybe if they had taken more time to improve the ease-of-use of this blog, we would've found it more intriguing.
  The lack of a navigational bar is the first thing you notice when you open the blog. Followed by the lack of any apparent cohesion at all. Blog posts seem to be of various sizes and about random topics without relation other than the 'hacking' they explain. According to google's definition, the meaning of a blog is part that it is supposed to be written in an informal, conversational, style, but the complete overlook of organization in this blog makes it more inconvenient to use than it is helpful.
   We found the idea of the blog to be great, and have all found life-hacks to be useful in the past. However, we were very disappointed with the way this blog turned out. We were unable to find any posts that related to our interests, and therefore left the blog before learning any hacks. If the makers of this blog had paid more attention to organization and the way that the audience has to move about the blog, then this would be much more informative and overall better.

-Summer E.W., Eugenia L., Lucas C., Clayton P., Kristen S.

Mini Essay Backwards Outline

Intro:
Talk about personal experience, and how he fails to follow the trend of how 'powerful' people communicate.
Thesis:
"But even the most garbled and indecipherable of them are saying something, and what they have to say is, in terms of social status, a bummer."
Support Point:
They do it on purpose to show power and to claim status.
Support Point:
Times have changes, people used to pride themselves on good education whereas now it's not as valued.
Support Point:
How it can come back to negatively affect you and your business/company.
Counter Argument:
People think it's hip and cool to appear this way, they want to seem powerful.
Conclusion:
"Which only confirms what I've always felt about power: that the people who really understand it don't say anything at all."

- Eugenia, Summer, Clayton, Lucas, Kristen
photo: buycheapchannelessay.com

Patterns Chapter Three: Arrangement

Arrangement and Essays

Personal Reaction:

This chapter was very straight-forward to me. There wasn't anything that stood out as being very important, new, information. I actually felt a little bored during this chapter. I do think, however, that if you weren't aware of the arrangement of an essay, it would be very helpful in explaining the parts that make one up. I'm excited to move further into this book because I'm hoping the way it covered this topic is the same way it will cover topics that I actually don't understand. 

Professional Reaction:

It appeared to just be a fairly mundane chapter to continue to get the class rolling while reintroducing important things that everyone in the class may or may not know. The chapter was done very well and was informative without giving excess information. Chapter three, as opposed to chapter one, was a lot about structure, and it did a very good job of moving more towards visuals in order to help the audience understand. Arrangement is something that can be overlooked, and that people may assume is obvious, but it is actually very important to any piece of writing. 

Conclusion:

Arrangement is nothing too exciting, and the chapter-while short- seemed to be repetitive not of itself but of knowledge that I had already learned year after year. As I said earlier, I am excited to see how this book works with me when trying to teach me new things, as opposed to reintroducing me to old ideas.

-Kristen Skuba

photo: rit.edu

Day One Interview: Summer Eisert-Wiemelt

Day One Interview: Summer Eisert-Wiemelt 

By: Kristen Skuba

Summer is a smart young lady in the middle of a technological world, and she utilizes her resources. When I sat down to ask her a few questions about technology and ENG 121, she showed me how capable she was technologically, and how organized and ready she was in the classroom. She told me about some of the ways she uses technology. Later, she told me about her goals for the class, and she knows what she wants. 

Q: What forms of writing do you use most often? 

A: Mostly texting, the occasional e-mail.

Q: Do you write e-mails to friends? 

A: Occasionally, if there are no other means of communication.

Q: How do you feel about to-do lists? 

A: I try to do a daily plan and a to-do list, I like to plan things about my day. 

Q: Anything other writing you do every day?

A: I love writing in my journal, but I don’t always remember to. 

Q: Any good or bad previous experiences with writing instruction?

A: I don’t remember anything, but my mom used to be an english teacher.

Q: Have you ever participated in peer workshopping?

A: I did a few times throughout high school, if that’s what you mean.

Q: Are you familiar with computers?

A: Yes, I actually own a computer. [laughs] It’s a funny story, I bought a pc and returned it after four days, after that I bought a mac and I’ve been a fangirl ever since.

Q: How experienced are you at e-mail and navigating the internet?

A: Very experienced. I’ve been using the internet for a long time now. 

Q: How about social media?

A: I do a few things when I’m on the computer, the order goes; Facebook, Reddit, Gmail, Reddit, Gmail, Reddit, Gmail, Facebook.

Q: How familiar are you with our campus library? Are you new to FRCC?

A: I’ve got to say I’m not very familiar with the library. I walked in for 30 seconds, realized I was lost, and then I left. This is my second day at FRCC. So pretty new.

After that we spoke about our goals, I realized Summer and I felt the same way about some things. We both wanted to work on our thesis writing abilities. However, one of her other priorities is learning how to stay on topic longer. While my other goal is trying to make my papers smoother and to work on better transitions. Neither of us really foresaw any problems happening in the class, we were both reasonably excited and feel we are prepared. 

photo: www.smiaware.com

Let Steroids into the Hall of Fame

deviantart.com/killacap25

1. What is the writer's general subject?
Steroid use by baseball hall of fame stars.
2. What is the writer's main point?
To allow steroid use into major league baseball.
3. What are the writer's key supporting points?
If everybody used drugs, it would be an even playing field.
4. Does the writer seem to have a particular purpose in mind?
To convince people to allow steroid use into major league sports.
5. What kind of audience is the writer addressing?
The author seems to be addressing baseball fans.
6. What are the writer's assumptions about audience? About subject?
He is assuming that his audience cares about sports. He is assuming that steroids only enhance the game.
7. Are the writer's ideas consistent with your own?
None of us agreed with what the writer was saying.
8. Does the writer reveal any biases?
He is biased in that he thinks steroids are beneficial to the game.
9. Do you have any knowledge that challenges the writer's ideas?
Steroids are commonly talked about with a negative connotation because they are widely known to have bad side-effects on the body.
10. Is any information missing?
The author is missing a counterargument. Making the piece feel very one-sided.
11. Are any sequential or logical links missing?
The author brings up children and the control of their usage of steroids, it is a random thought that has no substance outside of that statement.
12. Can you identify themes or ideas that also appear in other works you have read?
When an author writes about a topic that they don't have a solid counter-argument for, they are more likely to avoid the proper ways of writing, like counterarguments and debunking them.
13. Can you identify parallel's with your own experience?
None of us have had any experiences with steroids of our own accord.