MLA Practice

Liza Burby, a writer for Better Homes and Gardens explains the difference in mood children feel when they are in school as opposed being at a birthday party or interesting event. Russ Quaglia says, " THe sense of fun and adventure they have in going to school and learning new things begins to wane by third grade when they've leanred the basic skills...By high school, they are talking about school as some kind of prison." (Quoted in Burby 108).

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When I was younger I was on a swim team for my school from age 6-18. Some of the best memories I have in life have been from swim meets or practice, and to this day my best friends come from that team. I loved swimming in the summer the most, the team had the opportunity to swim outside, play games outside and have parties. Swimming has given me excellent team work skills as well as leadership skills. I miss the feeling of being in a competition and giving it all you have to win a race. I loved to swim backstroke, and that carried with me through my high school years. Even though I was on the high school team, I still competed in the meets for my rec team over the winter. I still go back once a year and participate in the "alumni swim meet" that my high school has every year.

I-SEARCH

I picked this topic because I am interested in the advancement of women in today's workforce. Suprisingly, it wasn't as easy as I thought to find information about this topic, but when I did, it was full of statistics and how things are "getting better" in today's work world. I plan on doing a questionnaire that asks women how they have felt over the years as a woman in the working world. My goal is to prove to the reader that most women have in fact felt oppressed in jobs they have had in their life time. My views have no really changed since starting my research project because I went into this thinking things aren't as easy for women as they are for men, and my research has yet to prove me wrong. I am having a hard time getting people to participate in my questionnaire, but hope to find more participants this week!

Paraphrase

When writing a research paper, students tend to use direct quotations more than they should which causes their research papers to be full of quotations. Students should be cautious when writing a research paper because about 10% of the finished product should be directly quoted. Due to the amount of plagarism in today's academic world, students should be aware of the amount of direct quotes they use when taking notes. (Lester, 1976).

Malcom Gladwell

If I were to start a social epidemic in my community it would probably be recycling. I live ten minutes from the Cumberland County Dump and everytime I drive by it smells absolutely awful. Not only is the smell bad, it gets more full as every year passes. I am willing to bet that oveer one quarter of the dump is recycleable and no one does anything about it! I would make members of the community more aware of recycling and the positive factors it contributes to our town, this could be done by commercial, newspaper articles, and sending letters. Taking pictures of the dump would help too!

I think the chapter about the Stickiness Factor was most influential when I read the book. It pretty much set the scene for the rest of the book as well, since he referred back to it often. This chapter was also interesting because I got to read about Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, all shows I grew up watching. I never thought about the studies that went into these shows or that Sesame Street actually had problems with kids viewing their show. I just like seeing things from another point of view.

I'm going to look at a lot of political ans social situations alot differently. I always see or hear about something and automatically have an opinion, but I think before I develop a strong opinion I should consider all sides of the story. It will make me look more professional, and I may learn a little something along the way!