Know it All

The article “Know it All” by Stacey Schiff was an integuing piece about the development of the website Wikipedia. It talks about the foundation of the website, which was established in 2001 by Jimmy Whales and was originally founded as the Wiki. The idea behind the website was to reestablish the encyclopedia, but be able to make it more inclusive and consistently current. To have it where anyone can access and update information. It would be a democratic sort of encyclopedia. Also to have a broader range of information that you can derive from the website, then you could an encyclopedia. It discussed how when it first started they weren’t able to produce many article because it takes so long to tract down information, check for accuracy, and then publish the current status of it. It then talked about how they began using this new program called Nupedia, which then made them able to produce thousands of articles in a year. This changed the website from Wiki to Wikipedia. Now we currently have over a million articles on the website. The only problem with this remarkable site is the legitimacy of the content of the website. The idea that anyone with information can put it on the site is not necessarily reliable. People could put inaccurate, bias information and its up on the website, like its fact when it’s not. This is where people need to realize that just because the internet has the idea of authority of recourse of information, doesn’t mean that it actually is knowledgeable. Just like how not all books are knowledgeable, a lot of times there people ideas or opinions. It gives the idea that in order to have real authority of information, which has to be knowledgeable of the information. You also need to realize that when you’re reading something whether or not it actually has authority or not.

Summarizing, Quotations, and Paraphrasing

When you are making an argument you often have to refer to someone else’s work. There are several different ways you can g about doing this, such as summarizing, quoting, and paraphrasing. When you summarize you have to find the balance between what “they” are saying and what “you” are saying. You should first make sure that when you talk about what someone else says you have to put yourself in their shoes or other words their thoughts. You have to make sure that you fully understand what they are saying. That what when you talk about what they say you are describing what they are really saying. Also you should make sure that you include all there points. Some common mistakes are when you summarize and don’t include or say what there point was correctly. Although you should also make sure that you include your own thoughts too. If you just have their thoughts and not your own, your summary will not feel complete. Also another good way to have nice summary is to use the right kind of verbs. Using verbs for making a claim, expressing agreement, questioning or disagreeing, and maxing recommendations. Another method for helping an argument is by quoting or using the exact words of your sources. This can be very effective if done correctly. First you have to make sure that you are using all of their words, and then making sure that it fits in with the content of your writing. When you do this you have to incorporate your ideas with those of who you are using are coherent with them. The last thing you should make sure you do is give credit to whom you take a quote from. Another thing you can do is paraphrasing, this is basically taking what someone says and use it and slightly change how you say it so it’s their words in yours.

Research Papers Info (Quick Access 31)

One of the most important things to remember to avoid when doing a research paper is plagiarism. Plagiarism is when you represent someone else’s work into yours without citing them for it. It’s basically taking credit for someone else’s work, which is a very serious matter. It can lead to expulsion from a university. There are lots of different types of plagiarism such as buying a paper of the internet, turning in something someone else has written, changing parts of someone else’s paper and turning it in, don’t use quotation marks on direct quotes from sources, copy and paste key parts, use ideas from sources without citing them, combine ideas from several sources and not cite them, and taking language or visual ideas from someone else’s work. To avoid plagiarism to acknowledge when you are using someone else’s ideas, words, or images, make sure you use the right documentation style, write down all the facts for documenting a source just in case you lose the source, and if you have any questions make sure you consult an instructor. When using internet sources, you need to make sure that you are not cutting and pasting material, and if you do make sure it is quoted properly, keep printed or referenced material separate from your own, summarize or paraphrase material before you use it, and use an internet service to double check if you are concerned about something being plagiarized. However you do not have to document common knowledge, or your own thinking. Before you add in your sources you should analyze the content of your material and then synthesize the connections made from it. Make sure that you use a quotation around exact words you are implementing from a source. Also to make sure that your quotation fits smoothly into your writing make sure you are taking into account the grammar, style, and logic of your writing. Another thing you can us to help the quotation flow better is by adding in some of your own words in the sentence and then putting brackets around them. Furthermore you can delete parts of the quotation that doesn’t flow is by putting ellipsis in for the word that you deleted. Another detail to using quotations or other integrated material is by adding in the authors name, credentials, student introductory analysis, and a source title. A good substitute to quotations is paraphrasing, or restating in your own words. Some good ways to do this is by using it to deepen what you’ve already written, do not use it in a thesis or topic sentence, say what the source says, reproduce the sources ideas, use your own words, content should be just as long as original, and make sure you document accurately. Another way you can add material is by summarizing, which is just taking the main idea of the original material and writing it into your own words. The last thing that can help with helping implement others work is using the right kind of verbs to discuss it.

Research Paper Info (Quick Access 30)

Research (30)When you use the web for research papers you have to be careful, because anyone can put something on the web so it gives you a lot of resources, but it can also lead to inaccurate and bias material. The best method of searching the web is to start by going to a search engine and then typing in key words into it to start your search. By keywords I mean a word or group of words that relate to your subject of interest. Another way to search is by directories, which give lists of topics and resources. The lists then can lead you to web links on the different subjects. When you find a website you then need to evaluate it for accuracy. Some good indicates of that are educational, non-profit, or governmental organized websites. Another is from expert authors on the subject. Also reliable print sources such as the New York times and such. After reading through the content you find it has a lot of unbiased supporting evidence. Furthermore another good indicative is that the website is up to date or current information

Research Paper Info (Quick Access 28)

When researching a topic there are different strategies that you can use in order to help your search be more efficient. One is if you already have a specific topic then you can start with books or articles that have experts on your topic. The second type is if your topic is general then you start by reading reference books like encyclopedias to get a more specific topic then afterwards you can refine your research to that. So you are finding your research through chaining. The third way you can research is brainstorming when all you have is a topic, because it then helps you come up with a more defined question. This is good for making sure that your research question is covered by all areas by your sources. A source is any information that gives ideas, examples, or evidence for your topic. There are two types primary which is an original work and secondary which is reports, comments on, or describes someone else’s work. A good way to do research is by field study which means you go out into real-life situations to observe, survey, interview, or participate in an activity firsthand. Surveying is when you use questions to gather information about people’s thoughts. Observing is when you watch specific situations to gather information. Interviewing is when you ask questions to a primary source. After you gather all your sources you have to put them into some type of documentation style like MLA, APA, CSC, or CM. You then start by listing all your sources in a working bibliography. Once you have them all listed with the information then you can write it out in the correct documentation style format. Also you need to make an annotated bibliography for all the sources that you summarized or commented on. You can use content notes to keep track of what sources gave which information.

Portfoilio

The class English 100, 100a, and 200 is designed to help you succeed in courses beyond English, by expressing complex ideas and feelings in ways that others can understand and know your audience. It does this by teaching fluency by multiple drafting, careful revision, editing, and finally polished essays. Through the semester you should have two portfolios, a working portfolio (drafts, revisions, and readers responses) and the Assessment portfolio. The passing of the Assessment Portfolio makes you eligible to go on out of English 100, 100a, or 200. In order to submit your portfolio you have to have a passing grade of a c- or better in English 100, and if in English 100a you have to have a passing grade of c- and a cr for English 60. If you have a d+ or lower will receive a grade of f or NC for the class and must re-enroll in English 100, 100a, or 200, and English 60 as appropriate. Those who pass the class, but do not pass the assessment portfolio will earn a Report in Progress (RC) in English 100 or 100a and an NC in English 200. In your portfolio you must include a cover letter and 2-4 pieces of work, with a total of 13-16 full pages. Partial pages will be counted as fractions of pages. Bibliographies or works cited will not count as the 13-16 pages, but if you have room at the bottom of the lat page of a piece of work you can place it there. The cover letter must be 2-3 pages long and must not exceed 3 pages. It should include each of portfolios submissions by title, writers reason for selecting them, demonstrate sustained self-awareness, make specific claims of writers strengths and weaknesses, what the writer has learned as the development of a writer, and knowledge of the writing, revising, and editing process. It should also talk about some things such as ways you continue to work on writing weaknesses, learned from readings, writings, themes, strategies of writing and revising, detailed process of writing problem, reflection on ways of revision for audience, or patterns in your writing. It should be formatted with one inch top, bottom, and side margins, portfolio and page number in header, submission date, portfolios address, salutation, and single spaced with skipped line between paragraphs and no indents, and ending with sincerely and portfolio number. The rest of the portfolio should be your pieces of writing. It cannot include poetry or pieces of fiction. The essays must be double spaced, 12 point version of Times New Roman, indented at each paragraph, and separate the paragraphs by a single blank line. It should also have one inch margins on the top, bottom, and sides. The admission date should be on the first page of every piece of writing. There should be only one copy of only final drafts in your portfolio. The portfolio pages should be numbered in the header on the right side of each page. Also make sure you staple each individual submission separately. Most importantly make sure that neither your name nor your instructors name is anywhere in the portfolio. Finally place your portfolio in an 81/2 x 11 inch manila folder and clearly print your portfolio number ink.

General Apache Poem

The article in the novel “Essays on Writing,” on General Apache was fascinating. Why you might ask? Well it developed the story on a true person’s life into a poem. It developed on from a professor who after years of teaching found it more beneficial to meet with his students on the topics that they would want to write about rather than choosing topics for them. In doing this he came across a student who had been in the Vietnam War. This particular student through trust was able to envelop his life stories of before the war, getting drafted, his experiences through the war including his expertise fighting and strategy skills, the effects it had on him after the war and how people treated him, which in turn led him to alcoholism and fighting and then the rehab from that after 20 years. He then talked to him about all these different factors and writing them into different essays and how to go about it. Well the more they hung out and discussed these stories, the more interested professor Harrington became. Through time it then led to Harrington being inspired to write a piece of literature, a poem, on the life of this soldier. The poem that he wrote was exactly what General Apache had been trying to get out of himself this whole time. It was an incredible poem. The way it was written was like if this soldier’s life had been writing it himself, using language that you would believe he was talking to you. It felt like you were hearing this firsthand. Not only that but it goes through his whole life story from laying ball in Cincinnati to cutting throats in Vietnam to being shot and almost paralyzed to the drinking and finally to the recovery of it all. When you read the poem you feel the heartache, the pain, the violence, and the sorrow. It’s like you want to reach out and just give this man a hug, because it stirs up all these emotions without even being to descriptive. It made you think of things that you wouldn’t even really consider, like how people were cruel to veterans for killing people in war. Honestly these couple pages were really inspiring and I definitely recommend anyone into reading them, or at least the General Apache poem.