Andrea Jones's Midterm

Part 1

Dear Kyleigh,

            This semester I am taking English 1102 and we’re focusing on semester long inquiry questions. So far this semester, I have learned a lot.  To being with, I’ve learned how important the little steps are. For example, we’ve created a blog and an annotated bibliography. These two things have helped a great deal with my research because both of these projects made me learn more about my subject. I’ve also learned about claims and how to evaluate an essay. I learned how to evaluate an essay from the book we are reading in my class. The book is called From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide. Overall, I believe that it’s important and useful to learn these things because throughout college we’re all going to have to write papers. So, why not know the right way to write a paper if you’re going to be doing it for four years? Plus, all of these little steps that are leading up to our big papers can be utilized in the future. They really are helpful when writing a paper!

            Sincerely,

            Andrea Jones

Part 2

I wrote the “What’s it Like to Be You” essay because it was assigned in our class this semester. We wrote this paper so that we could all get to know each other better, and to share what it’s like to be us. This wasn’t the simplest paper to write. When it was first assigned I thought it would be easy, but when I actually sat down to write it became a little more difficult. I knew what I wanted to write, but I couldn’t always translate my thoughts into words.

            My ideas for this paper came from my memories growing up and who I am today, so, pretty much my whole life. Also, workshopping other peoples’ papers helped me gain some new ideas for my own paper. The audience of this piece was Ms. Ingram and the class. Knowing that the whole class was my audience made this paper more difficult since everyone would be reading about my personal life, but I wanted to make it a good paper. I wanted everyone to get a sense of who I am and why I am who I am.

            While writing this paper I think I got to work on my free writing skills the most. When I got my paper back after our workshop class I made a few minor revisions. I added more ideas and information as well as changing minor errors that my group caught. During this paper, I do believe that I took risks. I’ve never had to write a personal paper like that before. I put personal experiences in there that I would normally tell to a stranger, and because of that I believe I took a risk.

            From this writing, I learned that writing doesn’t always have to be so serious. It can be fun. This essay taught me about myself too. It made me think about the person I am today, and the events that led up to it. Overall, I expect the reader to learn about me and who I am. Before the final portfolio, I plan on going back and adding more information about my life today and what it’s like. Also, I plan on switching around the order of my paragraphs.

Part 3

I really liked Peace, Butter, & Jelly. I think it’s a great way to start off the semester so students can get a feel for what the semester is going to be about.

Part 4

Inquiry questions

Take a lot of thought and work

But it is worth it

Post Numbero Quatro

I have never been a blogger. When I discovered that I had to create and maintain a blog in my last semster English class I was a little worried. Having a blog last semester helped prepare me for my blog this semester. Blogging has taught me that writing down my thoughts somewhere where I can go back and read them is extremely beneficial. Blogging really helped me organize my thoughts and ideas. I also believe blogging can help you build off of your orignal topic. I learned that being organized can really payoff in the long-run. I predict that my blog will continue to be helpful to me as we begin our next papers.

When writing a paper, researching is what I have to force myself to do. This is only because it is a long process that takes time and patience. The research process is crucial to creating a good paper. I have learned that researching is a lot easier when you actually take the time to do it. Procrastination causes a lot of stress and panic that isn't helpful when you're trying to find information and sources for your paper. Even though I dread researching, it was different this time around because I was actually interested in what I was researching. I wanted to find more information because I wanted to learn more about my topic.

Like the research process, the writing process also takes time and patience. I learned that this process goes a lot smoother when you've found good information and sources through the research process. It also helps if you actually know you're topic. You can't write a paper when you haven't taken the time to learn what you're writing about.

I have learned the most about my inquiry question. Organic vs. Non-organic food is a popular topic in the world today. More people agree that organic foods are better for people and the enviornment than those who disagree. Even though organic foods do have numerous benefits there are also some negative effects from growing them. For example, organic farming has caused damage to aquifers around the world, but organic farming is one of the fastest growing sectors in the US. It has even continued to grow throughout our not so great economy.

Post Numbero Tres

My audience will be people who may eat organic foods or if they're interested in the differences between organic and non-organic foods. I believe that my topic is timely because organic food is a big topic today and there are debates about whether they are really beneficial or not. I am interested in my topic because I have never paid attention to whether my food is organic or not, but I am interested in the whole process of organic foods and how there is a difference between them and normal foods. I want to see if the benefits that people are saying can really help me become healthier. I think that our high school teachers just wanted us to know how to do the steps so we could become more prepared for college. I think college teachers care because there is more to writing than following steps. This week I've learned that organic farming benefits the environment too. If I've learned anything about the research process it's how time consuming it is. It really takes time and patience to find sources that will be helpful in the long run.

Post Numbero Dos

First of all, I have decided to change my inquiry question. Instead of doing my annotated bibliography on the health risks associated with smoking tobacco, I have decided to do organic vs. non-organic foods. I believe my most interesting source is 'Recent growth patterns in the U.S. organic foods market' by Caroline Dimitri and Catherine Green. This source is a document. I think that this source is interesting because it shows how organic foods are "one of the fastest growing segments of U.S. agriculture". This source describes how the organic food industry continues to grow more and more. As organic foods are at a higher demand, everyone is starting to specialize in growing, processing, and marketing these organic products. This source shows and describes the growth patterns in the U. S. organic sector in recent years. It also talks about ongoing programs on organic farming, processing, and marketing in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Overall, this source shows how much this now popular industry has grown overtime and summarizes the growth patterns. So far the only challenge that I've faced is trying to summarize these sources, but I think that it will become easier as I do more. Advice for my fellow peers is to not wait last minute to get everything together, this is definitely going to take some time.
 

Post Numbero Uno

My research question/inquiry question is the effects that smoking tobacco has. I chose this question because smoking is very common in the United States today and people should be aware of the risks that they are causing. I think what interests me the most about this topic is how harmful tobacco is even though it is grown naturally. People should care about this because people aren't only killing themselves but they are also killing others. I believe that smoking is bad for you and I don't understand why people would want to do that to their body. Some think that smoking is okay to do in public places while others do not. I don't think that it's okay just because you are putting other people at risk that are around you.