Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined in Webster's Dictionary as to steal and pass of the ideas or words of another as yours.  Plagiarism is an addicting habit, it may seem harmless at first but it can hinder you in so many ways.  It is against the law to plagiarize and you can get into some serious trouble with it, it is not something to play around with.For example it may get you kicked out of college or fail a class.  Nothing comes from plagiarism, there is no gain whatsoever from it.  Also besides being morally wrong and unethical plagiarism can hurt more than you.  Anyone that knew you were plagiarizing can get in trouble too.  I have a personal experience with plagiarism, I did not plagiarize but helped someone with a paper and they were similar when we turned them in.  The problem was sorted out and no one was in trouble.  This is just a case though that could have been worse.  The general rule of thumb is you can help, but don't let them see.  If you let a person see a paper you have written to help them out there is more of a chance they will be similar and may be more identical than you think.  If you get caught plagiarizing and get kicked out of college, good luck getting into another university.  That is why it is super important to cite sources correctly in a paper.  The best way to make sure that you will not plagiarize is to make a research log and keep a tally of all of your search results and sources you find.  This way you will not get confused and make a mistake on citations.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Research Log

I have decided to make my research log in a Word document, this way I can type whatever I want and have it all in one place to make it easily accessible.  This way I can date it and keep up with the research I am doing.  I like the idea of keeping it in a Word document because I don't feel as locked in as on this blog; personal preference really.  This way I am able to look at all my log at once and not have to flip through the log on the blog to find out where a certain topic I am looking for is.  

Monday, February 9, 2009

Three paragraph free write

            My research paper is on illegal immigration and its controversial issues.  My main focus is going to be on events leading up to how the problem got so bad.   Another part of my paper will be maybe some proposed opinions on how to correct the problem.  This paper will focus mainly on illegal immigration from Mexico to America.  Granite there is illegal immigration from other countries but in order to shorten the research available I am going to focus on immigration from Mexico. 

            Some sources that I will use in this paper will include but not be limited to: newspapers, magazines, government websites, journals, websites etc.  The most effective of these I think will be government web sites and newspapers.  These both ill contain facts and figures about the subject while also giving a background on how the problem got this way. 

There are a few problems I foresee with researching this topic is it may be a little to broad, I will have to limit what I talk about because there are many ways to go with this.  There is a lot of information on this topic and it ill is difficult to sort through stuff that is not relevant to my specific topic on this subject and get the necessary information I need for my research.

            

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Questions on Research Topic

Border Patrol in America
1.  Why might my audience care about this topic?  What might they already know about it?  The audience will probably care a lot about this topic because it is affecting almost all Americans.  They might already know some statistics on this topic but it also might have affected them personally also.  
2.  How does this topic help me address the assignment's purpose?  Will this topic expand my learning?  How can i shape this topic into a purpose that will interest my audience?    This topic will help me get to the assignments purpose because in it I can develop an argument and make valid points to try and prove my argument.  I think this topic will expand my learning because there is a lot of research on this topic and it is a very controversial topic in America today.  I can use different forms of rhetoric like pathos, logos, or ethos to keep my audience interested.  
3.  Does this topic seem rich enough to help me write a paper of the length asked by the assignment?  Does it seem complex enough for the assignment?  What is happening locally/nationally/internationally around this topic?  This topic seems very rich in information, there is much debate and controversy surrounding the subject.  The subject is very complex there are many rules and regulations that are being broken every day by illegal immagrants coming into the nation.  This subject is very complex and definitely enough for the assignment because there is a lot of controversy over it and much debate.  There is much on this subject going on locally and nationally because it is taking away american jobs and all the money that is going to illegal immigrants is leaving the country.  
Google Search-  There is a lot of interest in the topic there are many topics and articles on this subject.  There are many differing opinions on the subject and how it should be handled.  Lots of different subject matter on the topic.  The web pages just give other links to other sites on the subject.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Super Bowl Ad

My favorite super bowl ad was the Dorito's commercial where they guy had the snow globe and he said it was his crystal blog.  This commercial appealed to me because it uses all pathos.  It definitely played into the emotions of everyone through humor.  The guy says his crystal ball (the snowglobe) says there is gonna be free dorito's at work.  The man he is talking to is skeptical but the guy with the snowglobe throws it into a vending machine full of dorito's and everyone starts taking them.  The scenes flip and the man that was skeptical has the snowglobe and tells it he wants a raise, then carelessly he throws it and hits his boss in the groin.  The commercial didn't have much to do with dorito's besides the vending machine but it was very funny and everyone will remember it because pathos is the best way to grab the audience.