What I learned attending English 101 Class

At the beginning of this semester, I was a bit excited about attending this class. This was my very first on-line class that I have ever attended. My first thoughts were that I was going to complete this class with a fairly decent grade consider my past academics in literature. I was completely incorrect!

I learn quite a bit from this class.I learned how to blog, I also learned how to write a MLA style essay, but the most essential piece that I will take from this class is the fact that I am not a student that is able to learn in a "cyber" environment. I have learned that the best learning style for me is in the classroom, where I am able to have my professors at my fingertips, where I am able to meet my classmates face to face and chat with them about difficulties that I am having in the class.

I struggled with our essay assignments a lot during this course. I could not grasp the concept of what was wanted regarding the topics. I believe that our topic this semester was very difficult for because the paranormal is not something that I believe in.

If I had to take this class all over again, I would defiantly do so on site. This will help to ensure I was completely all of my assignments correctly. An on-site class will give me the opportunity to ask questions and receive a response face to face at the same time.

I enjoyed reading my classmates blogs and finding out what they liked and disliked each week, however, I did not care for the topics of the class at all. I don't watch television shows or movies that involve such concerns. I do not care to read about the dead, or watch movies about a living person who speaks to the dead as a profession, I am not interested in that at all.

Ending this semester, I am glad that I took this opportunity. Had I not, I would have never found out that the classroom is the best setting for me.

Sources for Essay 2

As stated in my previous blog, my second essay will be regarding whether law enforcement agencies should be allowed to seek assistance from psychics when solving cases. I have read some research that I plan to use from the following sites;

http://www.csicop.org/si/2005-07/i-files.html - This website I have found to be very helpful when it some to the skeptical individual. A writer by the name of Joe Nickell writes for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine and notates various known psychics such as Allison DuBois, Noreen Renier, and Carol Pate in their claims of help police officers solve criminal cases. I plan to utilize this website to argue why psychics maybe should not be used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_DuBois - Allison DuBois's website on Wikipedia.com is helpful regarding her psychic background and which law enforcements she has assisted in the pass such as the Texas Rangers, however, the listed agencies have denied her statements of assistance, therefore, I don't believe I can use this source to prove her statements but only her background.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Psychic-Detectives-And-Criminal-Profilers---Are-They-Solving-More-Crimes?&id=1189471 - This website is going to be great to help me argue why law enforcements should use psychics.

To be honest, it has been really difficult to fins research that is not skeptical of psychics assisting law enforcement, and even those that psychics that state that they have helped, the agency denies them assisting.

Researching Essay 2

I have chosen to write a persuasive paper on whether law enforcement agencies should be allowed to use psychics. I plan to research various known psychics such as Dorothy Allison and Allison Dubois (TV show Medium) who have claimed to have assisted law enforcements. I am also going to visit the Louisville public library to search for past articles as well as local book stores to find true stories. I would like to use the JCTC on-line library, but I have never done so and am not sure how. If anyone has any suggestions, I am very open to them.

Writing a Persuasive Paper

After reviewing the websites provided, I learned a great deal about how to write a persuasive piece. I learned that it is important to know both sides of your issue and to respect them. It is also important to support your prospective with experts. A great example was the "Effective persuasion" power point, on the Cite Sources with some Clout side it asked, " Which source would a reader find more credible? The New York Times or http://myopinon.com." This was a great example of which source is most respected by readers. I learned that you must have a strong Thesis Statement, your thesis statement must be debatable.

Revising Essay One

I did not make many changes to my rough draft. I read and utilized the sites that were provided by Stacy. I did find them useful. I also took some of the advice from my peer. I changed my title page. I first had the title page separate from the body of the essay. At the time that I wrote the paper I was not sure if that was correct, so once my peers corrected me, I quickly changed it. I also changed my "Works Cited" page, I had failed to alphabetize it.

After viewing the sites given by our instructor, I changed various wording within the body of the essay to help the flow of the sentences. I used the "Revising Drafts" as a check list to ensure the essay was written well.

I then used the "Writing a Research paper" as a checklist to ensure I had completed the editing process.

I learned that revising a papre is not looking over it and changing a few misspelled words or missed commas, but it is to ensure that the reader knows and understands that purpose of the paper.

Response to Peer Review - Essay 1 Draft

Thank you Stephanie Ludwig. Your responses were very helpful. I did go back and change my title page. I continued my introduction following the title. I read through the 2nd paragraph, and was not quite sure what I needed to change, so I left it as is. Also, I search the MLA format regarding the number of dates that could be entered, and I didn't find anything regarding that, so I left those as is as well. I did center the works cited as suggested though.

I only had one review to reflect from, and all of her suggestions were greatly appreciated and taken into consideration. I think that it is most important to focus on the introduction and the conclusion because that is what most individuals remember.

Natalie's Paranormal Beliefs Blog Entry 2

I will be writing my essay paper on Nostradamus. I have viewed five websites to locate research for my essay. I hope some of you find these websites hopeful as well.

The first website I viewed was: http://paranormal.about.com/ - About.com
Founded in 1996, About.com was acquired in March 2005 by The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT).

I found this website to be helpful , it allowed me to view multiple Prophets and Prophecies and research their backgrounds which lead me to want to research Nostradamus even more.

The second website was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal - Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.

I really enjoyed this site, it allowed me to venture through a huge variety of paranormal topics. I found the The Belief Poll very interesting. This was very helpful in writing my paper.

The third site was: http://www.nostradamus.org/ - This site gave a very good Biography, but noting more.

The fourth site was: http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_december03_18.htm

I chose this site to view because of it's title; Heaven's Gates a story written by by Gene P.
I was not able to use this site for my paper, but i did enjoy the story.

And finally, the fifth site was: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_2_28/ai_114090206 - BNET © 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. Skeptical Inquirer, March-April, 2004 by Taner Edis

Because I am skeptical of the paranormal, I really enjoyed this article. If you get a chance whether you are skeptical or not, take a look at this; it's a great read!

In all, all the sites were useful in writing my paper.