Reflection

Overall, I was very pleased with the class. I was nervous going into it because I had never taken an online course before, but once I figured out how to do everything, I enjoyed it very much. The parts of the course that were successful for me were the lectures, the readings, and the blogs. One part that was unsuccessful for me was the discussion board because I felt like there should be more discussion.

I learned many things this semester about writing essays. One major thing I learned was how to do a counterargument and rebuttal. I also learned how to add more audience appeal throughout the essay and how to make the introduction more interesting.

I feel that this course has met most of my expectations. I feel that I have improved my writing overall, have learned to organize my ideas in a successful way, and I have improved on stating my ideas clearly throughout the essay. Overall, I am happy with the class!

Evaluating Criteria

Evaluating criteria is very important in everyday life. It helps us make educated decisions, whether it be life changing decisions or a simple everyday decisions. If we did not evaluate criteria, we would end up doing a lot of things we would regret or did not want to do because we did not think it through before doing it.

I evaluated criteria when I had to make a decision on whether I should try out for the BGSU softball team. The criteria that I evaluated was 1.) Will the school offer support if I am struggling in my studies while playing softball? 2.) Will the team accept a player who has a temporary injury (since I had an injury at the time) ? and 3.) How do the players handle their school work when they are on the road? I also had to evaluate my own personal thoughts and decide whether I loved the sport enough to put that much time and commitment into it. If I did not evaluate all of this criteria, I would have made an uninformed choice and may have chose the wrong thing.

TV Show!

If I were to make a tv show about essay 4 it would be a reality show. I would have a group of 10 people and observe them doing different things, such as playing violent video games. Then there would be a video camera where they could just go and talk to about why they did certain things. Then we could see all the causes of why people do certain things and determine the most plausible causes.

Speculating Causes

I think speculating causes for certain things is very important. It helps us understand why something happens and lets us look at all the possible causes. If you just look at just one cause or the most obvious cause for a certain trend or event, you are limiting yourself to fully understanding why that certain trend or event occurred. Also, it is not good to assume that the most obvious cause for something happening is the only cause and the most accurate. It might not be a cause at all and then you would have completely misinterpreted the whole trend or event.

Speculating causes in the "real world" can be very useful because people can come up with solutions to disastrous events. For example, if there was a school shooting, officials would want to come up with all the possible causes for why the shooting occurred. They might come up with that the shooter played too many violent video games, had a grudge against a certain student, or was mentally unstable. If officials can come up with possible causes, they might be able to come up with solutions to prevent the next shooting.

Popular trends that you go....HMMMMM!

A popular trend that makes hmmm....is video games...especially violent video games such as the Halo series and the newly released Halo 3 video game. I always wondered what the fascination with these video games were. I really do not know why these games are so popular, however I would like to do some research as to why these violent video games are so popular among wide variety of people and age groups.

The BIGGER Picture!

The essay we are writing in class can make a big impact in the "real world". The essay can be given to whomever we are writing to, the audience, and they can then consider your solution to the problem. After considering your solution, if they are persuaded enough, they can put your solution into action to try to correct the problem. Then, the problem may be fixed or at a better place than it was before! Therefore, this essay can make an impact in the "real world"! "Proposing a solution" can fit into everyday life because you can continue to come up with solutions to problems that affect you or the community that you are living in. You can then try to put these solutions in place to try to correct your problem.

Problems!

A problem that really gets under my skin is littering. I know it is not a huge problem that will greatly impact the world, however, it really bothers me. I cannot stand it when I see people littering. It can cause harm to animals or plants that are nearby. I just don't see why people cannot take that extra few seconds to walk to a trash can to throw something out. It does not take that much effort. A solution to this problem could be to have stricter punishments for people who litter. Also, if signs were posted saying, "If you litter, you will be punished," people would be constantly reminded not to litter, and would be more fearful of littering knowing that they could get punished.

Online Course! :)

So far, I have really enjoyed the online course. I have learned a great deal of new information and I am very impressed on how organized the course is. Also, it is very helpful and has a lot of individualized help. This is very beneficial to me because I am already taking a lot of courses already at the university and playing club softball so I am very busy, so this course is very convenient. Also, I feel that I benefit from the individual help. I do not have any suggestions to make because I like every part of the course.

Differences in essays and writing process

I think that one of the main differences in the second essay is that the topic is more broad. It is not just based off of your personal experiences, but from sources as well. I think that to start out, most people know less about their topic for essay 2 than they did for essay 1. I feel that my writing process has been the same for essay 2 as it was for the first essay. I made an outline, did a rough, rough draft, a rough draft, and I will then do more revisions for my final copy. However, for the second essay I did have to find sources and do research in order to back up my argument. Also, after I did my first essay, I learned new things that I will apply to my second essay. For example, for my rough draft for my first essay, I had proposed solutions for the problem, however, for this essay, I know now not to do that!

Sources for Essay 2

For my second essay I was going to write about how free birth control methods, such as birth control pills and condoms, should be passed out at high schools. I was planning on using mostly magazine and newspaper sources for my essay. Also, I was going to use the Academic Search Complete through the BGSU library to find journal articles about my topic. If I get my sources through the BGSU library, I will know they are credible sources since the library only provides credible sources. Credible sources are so important to academic writing because you want the information in your essay to be accurate, and if you get your information from non-credible source, the information could be very inaccurate.

Source introduction: In her article "Free condoms for teenagers" Sarah Kraszewski argues that making condoms easily accessible to teenagers helps reduce teen pregnancies and STD's.

Essay 1 Final Draft

I felt pretty good after I turned in my final draft for our first essay assignment. I am confident that I made many good revisions to my rough draft to make my final draft a success. As I was revising my paper and writing my final draft, I would figure out key things I would need to revise in my paper. Then I would go through and concentrate on one thing at a time, and revise what needed fixing. For example, I proposed many solutions throughout my paper. However, there should not have been an solutions in the paper, since I was just arguing a position. I would then go through and focus on the parts where I proposed solutions and make revisions to those specific parts. Then I would move on to the next thing that needed revising and concentrate on that. Overall, I think I would keep all the steps I took for my writing process for this first essay the same. I would still do an outline, a rough, rough draft, a rough draft, and the revisions of my rough draft (as stated above). I feel that these steps worked really well for me and helped me complete a successful final draft! :)

The Rough Draft!

This week I wrote my rough draft for our first essay assignment. For my essay, I am arguing against the BGeXperience being mandatory for first year students. Before I started writing, I made a general outline and wrote down the main ideas that I would have in my paper. From there I was able to organize my thoughts and begin writing. I made a couple of changes between the rough, rough draft and the rough draft I turned in this week. Although I made an outline before I began writing, I changed the sequence of my ideas after I wrote the essay for the first time. After I wrote it, I realized it did flow very good, therefore I changed things around. However, I feel like I could still get it to flow better than it does now. Another change that I made was that I provided more background information on the BGeXperience program. I still think I need to make a few changes before I turn in my final essay. I think I need to make better transitions between my ideas and I think develop my ideas more.

Essay Thoughts!

As I begin to start my first essay for this course I am a little nervous. I feel that the first time you either take a test or write a paper for a new course and a new teacher it is always a little difficult. However, at the same time, I am excited to begin my essay. I am also excited that we get to take a stand for or against a policy that we choose. Therefore, it will be fun as a writer to write about something that interests me. Furthermore, I am not as apprehensive as I was going into the first essay because I know that if I need help, I can use the writing center. Overall, I am eager to begin my first essay!

Course Expectations

My expectations for this course are to become a more improved writer and to learn new ways of organizing my ideas into a clear essay. I expect to learn how to clearly establish my ideas and how to prove my point throughout an essay. I expect that I will be successful in creating thesis statements, however I will want to work on organizing my ideas throughout the essay. Also, I will need to work on my transitions. From the instructor, I expect that I will be assisted with the certain parts of my writing that need improving so I can become a better writer.