presentation

 

Question/Thesis:

-Drug Addiction Counselor Major

-Why do so many college age students  start using Cocaine? (Started as general; drug addiction-why, then cocaine for all ages, narrowed down to college age, 18-22)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwweEf_OkxE&feature=related

“Cocaine gives a person a feeling of euphoria, energy, and at times, an unbelievable, almost superhuman sense of control and mastery. For instance, some people who have taken cocaine have been known to leap out of windows or off rooftops, thinking that they could fly or that they could jump dozens of feet without getting injured. There is, however, a physiological reason why people continue to use cocaine after their first encounter. Cocaine exhausts the “feel-good” neurotransmitter dopamine, thus causing a need for even more use. In short, and from a physiological perspective, cocaine use perpetuates more cocaine use”(“Cocaine Use”).

“Approximately nine percent of students ages eighteen to twenty two have reported regular use of the highly addictive stimulant(Gill13).”

http://ezinearticles.com/?Cocaine-Use-by-College-Students-and-Celebrities&id=441373

http://www.mediainternational.com/FlashPreviews/Inside%20Dope/Cocaine.html (stop at 3:15)

“Cocaine Use by College Students and Celebrities.” EzineArticles Submission – Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints. Web. 12 Dec. 2009. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Cocaine-Use-by-College-Students-and-Celebrities&id=441373>.

last blog post! :)

After reviewing my essays and trying to decide which one that I want to use to discuss, I had a very easy decision.

My research essay is about cocaine addiction and I find the topic extremely interesting, I don’t know how many other people do, but it is something that is appealing to me and i feel that if i am passionate about it then that is good enough for me.

In order to make this essay more complete and polished i need to cite my sources. I totally forgot to include citations in my drafts and that is pretty bad haha. I need to make my paragraph transitions a lot smoother as well. I feel that i just jump from paragraph to paragraph without any connectors to link them together.

I think it demonstrates a lot of progress in my writing because I sound a lot more technical in my writing than i did in the beginning of the year. That was actually one of my goals for this semester and I think I might have achieved it.

Research Paper Blog

I only have one research topic that. The reason is that I am dead set on writing about that and no other topics really seem appealing to me at the moment. So, obviously the one that I have is what I think is the best. I think that my research topic is the best one for me is because it is something that I am very passionate about and I want to learn more about. I know that I can find a lot of information on the topic and can also get quite a bit of first hand knowledge through interviews and things of that nature.

People had a lot of positive comments about my topic. They wrote how they could tell just from the page we wrote about the websites that it seems like I already am passionate about it and that there are so many questions that can be answered, that I don’t need to worry about running out of information for the paper.  They gave me a few more questions such as, “what exactly makes someone an addict?” They also made me consider if I think i should only write about one type of drug or if I should keep it generalized to all drugs/alcohol.

Two things that I found to be intriguing in other peoples writings were one persont that I read had three completely seperate topics, while another person had three similar ideas all from the same broad topic. I liked how both of the individuals I read from had their opinions expressed in their writings. I think I should try to make my opinion a little more out there, even though I don’t know many people who would have an opinion that supports drug addiction, I should throw it out there that I am extremely against drug usage.

I still think that my topic I have chosen is the best one for my researched essay. This is because I haven’t seen anyone else who is considering doing something along these lines, besides Tressa who may be writing about lowering the drinking age. That is the only thing remotely close to my topic, which I am very excited about. I want to do a topic that no one else is so that everyone can take in information about it. I think it will be good if the whole class has a variety of topics so that everyone can learn something. My approach was pretty similar to everyone elses, except I know that I need to include a lot more details than I had before, but I plan on doing quite a bit of drafts for this essay, so I am sure I will have a chance. I really want to do a great job on this because it is something I am so passionate about and want to share with others.

The Book Stops Here

I chose to write about the essay “The Book Stops Here” by Daniel H. Pink, the author discusses the accuracy of  the information that you find on Wikipedia.   Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that allows users to edit the information on it. I know quite a few people who have tried to use Wikipedia to write essays and do projects and have run into some issues.  I feel this is a good essay for me to discuss because it is important to any student or person doing research to know the facts about this kind of site.

Pink gives a few examples of instances that support his argument of Wikipedia not being a very reliable source of information. He mentioned a few individuals of people who edited information on the site and claimed to be people who they were not. One of these people was Einar Kvaran.  Kvaran claimed on Wikipedia to be an art historian without portfolio. And he is actually unemployed in real life. He lives in a trailer in New Mexico. He has never published anything or even taught a college course. He reads everyday about American sculpture. The only way he gets to vent all the information that he takes in is by posting it on Wikipedia. And not all of his information is reliable. He is not a qualified historian by any means and doesn’t know everything that he is talking about.

This article just proves a point that I already knew. I knew that Wikipedia is a decent source of broad/general information but you can’t trust everything on the site completely.  In my opinion, any website that can be edited by the readers, is in no way a credible source. It is a good idea to share ideas, but it’s not good for retrieving trustworthy information.

 

strose prose

I picked the article titled “Psychology or Education, which major is right for you?”

I chose to write about this piece because I feel this is a good article that I can relate to a lot. When I was younger I used to want to be a teacher very bad. I would always pretend to have a “classroom” in my room and use my little American Girl Dolls as the students.  I would always ask my teachers in school if I could help grade papers and hand them out. I even drew on the board during recess because I loved the feeling of being in the front of the room. As time passed, my interests changed like most kids do. I started to gravitate away from wanting to teach and started to lean more towards the idea of being a psychologist because I love to help people and learn about how they think. Even though I am still an exploratory major, I have an idea of what I want to major in. I am either going to major in psychology, social work or sociology. Those three are pretty similar to each other in my opinion.

The writers argument is basically a common argument. She wants the reader to be aware of everything that they are going to get themselves into before they decide to declare a major. She makes sure to tell you that you should pick the major that you find to be the most appealing to you. Do something that you like to do, and don’t worry about the work that takes to get there. If you want to do it, it won’t seem like work it will seem fun and interesting. You need to know a a lot about the major that you decide on before you do, so you don’t waste your time taking classes that you don’t need if you decide to change your major. I think we should listen to the advice because it seems like she did a good deal of research on the topic.

I think one of the points that was made that makes this pretty convincing is the fact that she put in the information that she researched. At a few parts, she put very detailed information. There were points where she wrote what exactly you could do with a degree in psychology. She listed the amount of credits you need for that degree, which is 52. She also showed that she did research because she used parenthetical references in her writing.

I think what made this topic so appealing to me is that fact that I really don’t know what type of degree I am going to pursue for sure. I like how she put in a lot of different information and put the writing in a form that is directed towards the reader. She put questions like “do you like to help people?, do you cope well?”. I feel like she did a good job with making this reader friendly and interesting.

lobster

David Wallace seems to be very passionate about lobsters. In his article which is a whole ten pages long, he goes into pretty in depth information about different species of lobsters. I never knew there were so many different types of lobsters, that is pretty crazy.

Another thing that I thought was very interesting was the fact that many years ago when people fist started eating lobster, only the lower class ate them. That is so wierd because now, when you think of eating lobster, you think big crazy expensive bills! I personally have never even had lobster, it kind of grosses me out but I really want to try it now.

He did a pretty good job of making lobster seem appealing to his audience.  I think that I should try some of the techniques that he uses to make my subculture essay a little bit more appealing to my audience. They are kind of similar in a way because not too many people are fond of seafood and not a lot of people are even willing to try it. I know a lot of people who are very close minded about rap music. They  are even more close minded about Lil Wayne, because they deem him as a “thug.” I should include some of the lyrics to his appropriate songs in my essay so that people can see that he is not the bad person people think that he is.

Subcultures

Subcultures I belong to:

college of st rose

volleyball team at st rose

brubacher hall residents

college freshmen

18 year olds

boston red sox fans

athletes

caucasion

female

exploratory major

people with brown hair

The volleyball teams most important part is obviously in the gym. Thats where we spend about 20 hours a week together at the least. We have quite a few rituals that are performed before and after practices and matches. The most important one is our warm up routine before every time we play.

The College Of St Rose is another important subculture that I belong to. We all do typically the same things here. Everyone of us wakes up, goes to class, eats in the dining hall, does their homework(well, some of us do).  We all have professers, and we all have advisors as well. Most of us have roomates, and most of us live on campus. The most important part of going here, is obviously going to your classes.

Evolution of my paper

My paper didnt really change too much from my first draft to my third. The idea stayed the same but I decided to elaborate more on a more specific point of view in my last draft. I wanted to make it more of a personal experience than I had it as in my other drafts.  I noticed that some people chose to go a bit more formal and some went a bit more casual than I did. Some only did two drafts and some did three. I really think that doing three drafts helped a lot. Because in my first draft was one side of how I felt, and in my second draft was a completely opposite side. After the conference, I realized exactly how I should bring them both together into one final draft. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I was a bit nervous about my overall organization of the essay because of the fact that I merged two ideas together in the end, but from what my peers told me about the final product, it came out pretty decent. I think if  I worked a little bit longer on my first draft, the final copy may have been a little more detailed than it is now. If I decide to edit this one again, which I probably will, my goal will be to add a lot more details. And add even more personal feelings about the topic. I expressed how I felt but I think I could have added a little bit more emotion into it, because it is a topic I care and am passionate about.

5,000 New Best Friends

In “Meet My 5,000 New Best Pals” by Janet Kornblum, a lot of very important points are made about the reality of virtual identities online. She discusses how kids online are going to extreme lengths to feel better about themselves. She said how a young girl was adding people that she had never even spoken with just because she wanted more “friends.” She would add them and then talk to them maybe once or twice and then never speak with them again. When you do something like that, it just opens up the door to people watching over your life. Once you add someone they have access to all of your information on your page, whether you talk ot them or not after you add them.

In the second reading; “When a Risqué Online Persona Undermines a chance for a Job” by Alan Finder, there are some things brought up about your future.  It states how the pictures/posts that ou put on the internet now are no longer your own property and anyone can do anything with them. Even if you have your settings on “private”, people can still find a way to find you.  Any person with any type of authority can get in touch with website administrators and gain access to your webpage. So you should always be careful  with what you put on the web.

I think that in my essay, I already incorporated these points into it because they are some of the main things I feel about virtual identities. I expressed in my essay that any one at any time can access your information once you put it on the internet so you need to be careful. And I also stated how people judge you based on the pictures that you post. You pretty much always have to watch your back with the internet…

Virtual Reality..

So, I couldn’t find a quote that exemplified exactly what I feel about the whole “virtual reality” thing.  I think there are pros and cons to it all. I feel that theres more cons, but that’s just me. I think its great that we have found ways to connect the whole world electronically, but people definitely abuse the privileges of it.  There are so many creepy people in the world that just use the whole way of creating a new identity for yourself to lure on innocent people who don’t know any better.  We discussed in class, how there are old men who will put up a fake picture of themself on Facebook, just so that they can talk to young girls/boys and try to arrange to meet with them.  I think there are many good aspects to it as well though. Like the fact that you can catch up with people that you haven’t been able to speak with in years, in a couple of mouse clicks you could be reconnected. Thats really good, but the whole “little kids getting preyed on” is not. Personally, I use facebook like almost every other teenager, and I love it. But at the same time I can see how social networking sites like that are very dangerous. They have potential to do a great deal of bad things for the world, and they already have.