The advice I would give to someone writing his/her first paper is, take the advice of your professor and your classmates. The advice that I received helped me a lot on my paper. The area that I strengthened in the past 10 weeks was basically the experience of writing another paper. The more I do something the better I get and I feel as if every essay that I do makes me a better writer and I learn something new with each paper I write. The areas that I need improvement are the things that I cannot stand, such as the outlines and the thesis. I have a hard time writing out a thesis and I think the outlines are a waste of time; I need to figure out a better way to do the outlines so I don’t hate them so much. The final thought I have is that I am very glad that I may never have to write another blog again and I would like to thank everybody for their help. Hopefully I’ll see you all in another class. I am on Facebook in case anybody would like to keep in touch, just send me a friend request and let me know that you were in my class, maybe we could help each other out in future classes. Good luck to everybody :)

I have already turned my paper in. I was at the point where I was happy with it and I felt as if I kept changing things I would end up doing more bad than good. I have two essays I have to do this term and a final exam in my other class. I am a buddle of nerves right now and decided that I have to get a grade back on these papers before I drive myself crazy. I am a perfectionist (not saying I’m perfect) and if something is not the way I like it, I will go crazy until it is fixed. I have actually got up in the middle of the night just to change something in my essay because it was bothering me so bad that I couldn’t sleep. My Anatomy class is worse than this class because I have my essay and my final exam as the two big points. I needed to know what I had to get going into my exam and that is the reason why I had to turn that one in already as well. I have also turned each of my papers into the writing center twice and have corrected a lot of mistakes and I’m happy with my papers but I know there is always a chance that something is wrong and I will not get the grade I am hoping for. This has happened to me during every class I have taken so far, I get so nervous about my grades that I get sick and can’t think straight. I hope I can get my grades back soon enough to be able to calm down before taking my exam.

I decided to discuss the topic “Do you plan to continue your blog even after the course?”

The answer is no. I really do not like writing on things such as blogs, twitter or even Facebook. I do have a Facebook account that I am on all day, however I never write any post on there either. I guess I am the kind of guy who keeps his personal life to himself. I keep my Facebook up all the time just in case someone wants to chat with me or if somebody needs help with anything, since I do have a lot of classmates on there that I help. This is a post that somebody wrote on their Facebook wall last night …

“Plugging phone in for a while, Need a nap”

I don’t care if her phone is dead or if she is tired. I think people write too much information about things that nobody cares about and it’s a waste of time. I am doing this blog now because it is a requirement and I will do the best that I can do and not just blow it off and think it’s not important; however after this class I will not do it on my own. I am here to learn and I know that this is a good way to see how our writing skills are and hopefully mine are ok. I have now done the blog thing, I know what it is all about, and now I can cross it off of my list of things I have tried and move on to the next thing. I am sure there are some people that will continue to use this and I am glad that they discovered something new that they like but it is just not for me.

I have decided to write about the topic

How do you feel about peer reviews? What have your experiences with them been like?

I love peer reviews, I would much rather someone tell me something is wrong now then find out in the grade book that it is wrong later. Every essay I have done, I look forward to sending it to the writing center for review. They do not try to sugar coat anything, they tell you exactly what they do or do not like about the paper and that helps me out so much when it comes to making my paper stronger. The thing I do not care too much about is when I have to criticize someone’s work. There is not one person taking these classes that I am smarter than. I do not like telling someone that their paper is wrong when I could be the one wrong and I do not like telling someone they did a good job when it could be all wrong. I would like to take this time to tell everybody that if I criticize anything on anybody, it is just what I THINK and if you feel as if I am wrong then it is ok to let me know that I am not correct. I will not get offended because I may be wrong and I would appreciate it if you did correct me, do not let me go on thinking I am right about something when I am not. I am here to learn not only from my professors but from my peers too.

These last six weeks have been very jam packed. I like starting off my essays during the first week so I can give myself time to get everything done without rushing, however this term I fell way behind. I have been so stressed out because of my tuition being raised an extra $120 (especially with me not working) and stressed about finding out that my career choice may be impossible to reach because of the fact that I cannot find a medical school that accepts online degrees. On top of all the stress this has been the worst term so far when it comes to the most work. This is the first time I have had to write two essays and the first time I have had to write a persuasive essay. This Comp class has so much work that it is hard for me to get caught up, for example this week we have an outline and a draft to turn in. I am not very good with outlines and it is hard for me to write a draft and make it completely different then my final paper because usually my drafts are pretty close to what I turn in. I really feel for the people who have to take care of their children and/or work because I know there is no way I can do it. I am on the computer working on my school work every day throughout the week about ten hours a day and I can barely keep up.

I have not completed my draft yet but I have had new ideas about my topic, in fact I just changed my topic again yesterday. I know this blog is probably suppose to be written when I am done with it but I really don’t think I will get finished with it until late next week sometime and I want to make sure I have this turned in, in case somebody wants to give me some advice on it. I believe I have an idea where my paper is going to go and I am starting to feel more comfortable with it. I am going to put off my draft as long as I can because I have an outline for this class and an outline for my anatomy class and I know those are going to be my obstacles for both classes and I need to give myself as much time to work on them as I can. I would like to get both outlines done by the end of the weekend which would leave Monday for my exam in my other class and do my draft on Tuesday so wish me luck on everything.

My ideas about the topic are very influential in later research because I want to get into the field of surgery and anesthesiology is something that all surgery requires. I wanted to learn more about the steps of the surgical procedures and this is usually where it starts. I have already learned a lot of things about anesthetics just by the researching that I have already reviewed and hopefully this essay will show that I did learn something.

My personal writing for this class has really set me back because I have so much stuff I have to do this term and with all the things on my mind I never realized until just this week that this essay is different than the other essays I have done in the past. One of my class mates explained to me that this is a persuasive essay and not a research essay and now I’m having a hard time finding material to help me on my paper. This has just been a bad term for me, with me finding out that the career choice that I’m wanting to get into will be almost impossible for online students so now I have no clue what career I want to get into and wondering if I am wasting my time and money and that they raised my tuition fees an extra $120 and with me not working at the moment I don’t know how I can afford it. I just have so much on my mind that I’m not thinking clearly and I have two essays to do this term and I haven’t really started on either one.

In my personal writing process, I usually break it down by weeks and find all my material that I’m going to look over the first week, then I separate all the material in categories the second week. After everything is categorized I start on my first topic on the third week with my second and third topics on weeks four and five. Then I do my conclusion and reference page on week six. On week seven I do my thesis and my introduction and do all my editing on week eight before I turn it in to the writing center. I usually get my paper back on week nine where I do all the corrections the writing center found and turn it in to be graded.

My academic challenges will have to be to get caught up because I am so far behind. I need to stop thinking about my problems for now and just try to get through this term and worry about all those other things during our week off. I am doing ok in my comp class, however my other class is starting to get close to the point that I don’t make the grade I’m wanting. I am going to have to find some way to pull that grade up also.

The only way school is influencing my life at this moment is that I don’t think I can handle school and a job right now and because of that I am really hurting money wise. I would love to be able to do both but I’m afraid that will take away from my school time and cause me to start getting lower grades. I was told that a GPA is pretty much a personal accomplishment and that most employers never look at that but my GPA is my personal drive and as long as my grades stay where they are I’m going to keep working hard, it’s when they drop is when I will start giving up and I know this and that is why I have to focus on getting good grades.

It is not the fact that I would be upset if someone used something I created without giving me credit as much as if they were making money off of it. If someone copied something I said then I would not care at all, however if they used my ideas to cash in, then I would be upset. I understand the importance of plagiarism, I mean if someone used my words in a book that made money then I would want a piece of the action but that is just the greediness coming out of me, which I’m sure everybody has a little in them. I have seen on TV and the internet where people are suing others for using their ideas in movies and stealing their songs to make hits, but my thought in all of that is they should have been smart about it. If they didn’t get it copy written or have documents stating when they did something before passing their ideas on then it’s their loss. If I design something, then go telling people how I did it and they take the idea and run with it then whose fault is it that I didn’t get anything out of it? I have worked at many places where I had to sign a letter of privacy so I won’t tell anybody else what is going on behind those walls. And as far as the internet goes, if you don’t want anybody to know what you are doing then don’t post it. Unless someone actually steals your folders that have all your personal stuff in there, then I don’t feel bad at all for those people crying that someone stole their ideas. Whatever I write or whatever anybody takes from me that I have laying there for everybody to get their hands on is my own fault. So I feel as if somebody write stuff and has it copy written or published and someone uses their words to make money then actions should be taken, however if no money is made, then no harm no foul.

I don’t really care too much about blogging, never had any interest in doing it and after this class I’ll probably never get on it again. I am on Facebook all the time, however I never post anything on there either, I just leave it open to chat with my friends whenever there is nothing else to do. My whole thoughts about blogging and twitter and even the Facebook post is that it is personal and useless information that nobody else cares about reading. I don’t care that someone is about ready to eat or if they are just sitting there watching TV and I really don’t care that they bought a new item on their Farmville. It really makes me feel bad to write on this blog because I have always been against people following other people’s personal lives and I won’t even let my kid have an account. It makes me wonder how I can tell my kid that stuff like this is bad yet she sees me doing the same thing. It’s like telling your kid not to drink alcohol while having a beer in your hand. I know there are a lot of people that think I may be crazy but I know how kids get together on these things and one see’s that their friend might be doing something and that makes them want to go do it (especially with the peer pressure these days). I use this excuse because we are having an issue with a 14 year old that we know wanting to go get a tattoo to remember her aunt that just passed away. She posted it on her Facebook that she was thinking about it and even though my mom has commented to her about not getting one because her aunt has never approved of them, all her little friends on there are commenting to her about how she should and not to listen to anybody else and some of them even commented that if she gets one, they will get one too. Well enough about my feelings about being a part of the “blog-o-sphere”

The topic about me being an online student is completely the opposite. I love the online schooling, it allows me to work all my studies anytime I want, it allows me to take my notes or watch lectures at my own pace and it also allows people who have kids and jobs to be able to go to school without the hassles of quitting their jobs or finding someone to watch their kids. I love the E-books that some of the classes offer, it makes note taking so much faster. It usually takes me 2 full days to take notes from my anatomy book where if it was an E-book it would only take me a couple of hours. I’m not really sure how to create a closer class community because I have always offered anybody (who wants to look me up on Facebook) help in studying and so far I have a few people that I had in other classes accept my offer and we help each other study all the time. Whenever we find things on the web or videos or anything that could help us, we send the links to each other and it really helps.

Day 1

hello, my name is Craig Harrington. This is my first time blogging, I'm really not even sure if I'm doing this correctly but hopefully before to long I'll be a pro on it.