In text citation fears

so this entry is supposed to be about how we aren't scared anymore about adding our in text citations... I guess this entry is kinda pointless because my paper is already done at this point... but i will say that before i was done i was still really nervous and worried about doing them, even though we had talked about them in class. my problem was that each citation we used in class seemed to come only from an article or book, and i used some sources that were not talked about, or even used as examples in our textbook. i guess that was stupid on my part and i should change that for when i do the research paper, but that was my problem. now i only hope that i did the citations right in this paper!

advantages and disadvantages of topics

well, first of all, the substitute never said anything about a blog entry... so i guess this is just going to be a shoot from the hip kind of entry since there was no forewarning or anything about this blog entry...
OK... i guess this is also going to be a bit of a venting entry so i apologize beforehand. it almost seems unfair for us to have to know what our topic(s) would be after only the first day or two talking about research papers. i know that this is probably just my opinion on the matter, but i have a really hard time coming up with ideas in the first place, so to require us to state what topics we are thinking of, as well as the disadvantages and/or advantages about each one seems a bit unfair to me. i know that this is to help get our creative juices flowing and get more ideas into our heads... but its still really hard for me to complete.So, I'm sorry but that's how I feel. i still feel that these are a good thing, even though its sometimes annoying.
OK. now to my actual blog: some possible ideas i guess would be to look into perhaps the origin of pianos and who first invented them. i could also go off into the early versions of pianos, like the harpsichord. i can see of some advantages because there are probably a lot of information in databases specifically in music, but some disadvantages might be that it might be hard to narrow to a specific topic. i could also maybe write about birth order. i could go off into this like talking about how certain children may show certain qualities or characteristics based off of the order in which they were born. i guess the same advantages and disadvantages would apply to this topic as well.

Computer Lab

going to the library and learning about how to use the databases was fun. i already knew most of the stuff simply because i am taking LIB 1010. it was however a good reminder, and it was nice being able to see and work with the real live examples we researched in that class than just seeing it on a video that is hard to understand sometimes. i think that this workshop thingy will help me in writing my research paper because i will now have a better understanding of how to use the databases and such for when i need to write my paper. it was also nice finding out that my paper does not need to be on some big important topic and that fun topics are OK too.

Peer Review for Concept Paper

i really liked this peer review compared to last times. it was a lot easier to finish all of the essays, probably mainly because we only had two to read instead of three like last time. I think that it was much more effective than last times. last time's was good, but i think this was better because we could actually read through everything instead of merely skimming through. i was able to give better comments to my peers, as well as i also received better comments on my essay. comments i received were very helpful. i can now consider adding definitions to my concept( such as what an oldest child is actually defined as) that i would not have considered before. my peers also caught small grammatical and spelling errors that i happened to miss in my read through before i printed. Thanks everyone! :)

Thesis Statement

ok... this blog is supposed to be my thesis statement. however, i have a problem with being able to come up with what i'm writing about first, and then being able to write about it on demand. i understand that these blogs are supposed to help get the juices flowing and a way to record our ideas, but i usually don't write my thesis statement until the very end of my paper. i usually just tie my thesis statement into what my paragraphs will be... so, i apologize that i don't have a thesis statement to put on here.i really am enjoying this class, and i have learned quite a bit so far. and i honestly am trying to follow the class and do the assignments. but i also think i need to be able to write my paper as best as i can, and in order to do so,i need to follow the usual plan for me. i'm sorry.

i am planning on writing about how to survive being the oldest child, possibly adding in a large family. so, i want to have possibly a list of ideas to aid in that survival,possibly a story or two from others, or myself explaining the difficulties, and possibly some questions in which i'll answer. i imagine that i will probably use the essay about how to survive zombies as a guide, and the structure will most likely be very similar.

Concept Examples

so... being as i just barely have figured out what I'm going to be writing about... i don't know how great these examples are going to be... we'll just have to see i guess. well, being as my idea is going to be like the paper we read in class: how to survive a zombie attack, I'm going to write about either how to survive little brothers, or how to survive being the oldest child. being as I'm the oldest of 8 kids, i can use my own personal examples, examples from my friends, aunts and uncles, and other people i know who are also the oldest child in their families. i am sure that i can find some quotes or reflections on being the oldest, and possible advice for other oldest children from famous people. i hope to be able to create a list from my own ideas, and advice from others on some precautions to take, things to have, and methods to use words and such, to ensure safety and sanity while growing up with siblings and/or little brothers. like i said, i'm still not sure what i'm going to write about, being as i could go either way with this.

i'm not exactly sure what concepts i could write about for this paper... there are so many things to choose from! i could write about the concept of the difference between homemade wheat bread, versus store bought white. i could write about the pros like why it is healthier than processed bread. how you can eat it warm, fresh from the oven. though some cons would be that it tends to be more flaky than store bought bread. it falls apart easier if not made right. it also doesn't keep as long, because no preservatives are added to ingredients.those are just some ideas about one subject that i could possibly do. i'm still deciding what i want to write about. who knows? maybe it'll be about bread! haha