Research tools

When it comes to researching for a paper or project, I am, by far, the most comfortable with electronic sources. The first tool I use is the internet and Google. Being in college, I’ve learned how to use the library sources and am becoming more and more familiar with these resources rather than just googling. I don’t usually use tangible sources such as a book unless it deals with exactly what I am researching because it can take so long to look through and find what I need for my research. I would like to broaden my horizons and not be so dependent on the electronic sources.

The Library

Since coming to Mars Hill, I have been in the library a few times. Two of my classes have visited the library and had a librarian talk to us about all the tools that it had to offer. I also had to do the scavenger hunt to become more acquainted with the library. I’ve used the library when I wanted to do homework and didn’t really have enough time to walk back to my room in between classes; if I needed to work with a group of people on a common goal, then we meet in the library in order to have quietness and less distraction than if we were in a dorm.

Nightmares of MLA

Any time I had to write a research paper, we always were told to use MLA citation for it. For some reason, citing my sources and in-text citation is a concept that is extremely hard for me to grasp. The only way I can possibly cite my sources is if I have a guide right in front of me telling me step by step the process I have to take. It’s not that I haven’t had experiences with citing my sources but I never remember how to properly do cite them and how to do the in-text citation. It’s pretty ridiculous how much trouble I have with it since I have been using MLA for every research paper I’ve ever done and have been instructed on how to do it multiple times. There was only one time I used APA and that was this year in my Fashion class.

ohhh research

When it comes to research projects, I don’t have all that much experience with them. I know I’ve done lots of small research projects but there are only a few that I stick out in my head that were major papers. One was on the history of chocolate, I know it is random, and I did it in eighth grade. That paper was interesting because I learned a lot of strange facts dealing with the sweet treat that most people had no clue about. The most memorable thing about that research paper was that chocolate was originally a bitter beverage invented by an ancient South American tribe, possibly the Aztecs or Mayans. There have been other research projects here and there since then but that one is the most prominent in my memory.

GM and Bt

I think the most interesting claim that Brody had in his report would be the part on the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium. I think that it is interesting how this certain bacterium can be infused with crop and then that little bacterium can have such monumental affects on productivity and can diminish the use of chemicals on the crops. It’s hard for me to believe that this could be true and I wonder how they could have possibly figured that out. If something this small can have such an impact on farming, then what more could they do with genetically modified food and how could truly impact the world?

Peer Criticism

When I ask others for assistance with my writing, I want them to be brutally honest. There are a few errors that usually come up in my writing; for instance, I will sometimes get the advice that some statements I made in my writing weren’t clear and could be confusing. I can sometimes have a problem with wording things in a funny manner that make since to me but not my audience. Also, when I’m trying to meet a word requirement on a paper, I tend to repeat myself; this can create monotony for the reader and those are the criticisms that I can think of that I usually get in my writing.

strengths and weaknesses

The strengths of my paper would probably be that I hit all the points that I wanted to address in my outline and found some other points that I hadn’t originally thought about and got to put them in my paper. The weaknesses are that I seemed to ramble a lot. I also repeated myself so much and it sounds a little monotonous. I’m hoping that when I revise it, I’ll be able to cut out the unnecessary things and will be left with a decent paper. When I first started my paper, I thought that it would be extremely hard writing 1,500 words; at first it was, but then I started coming up with other ideas and it started to flow more easily. It was still fairly hard to write though.