Part I/Data Bases

Part I: Getting Familiar with Finding Information

ScienceDirect:

Is a leading full-text scientific database offering articles and book chapters from more than 2,500 peer-reviewed journals and more than 11,000 books.

PsycARTICLES:

PsycARTICLES®, from the American Psychological Association (APA), is a definitive source of full text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology. The database contains more than 158,000 articles from nearly 80 journals published by the APA, its imprint the Educational Publishing Foundation (EPF), and from allied organizations including the Canadian Psychological Association and the Hogrefe Publishing Group. It includes all journal articles, book reviews, letters to the editor, and errata from each journal. Coverage spans 1894 to present; nearly all APA journals go back to Volume 1, Issue 1. PsycARTICLES is indexed with controlled vocabulary from APA's Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms®.

PsyBlog:

This website is about scientific research into how the mind works. These studies are covered and have been published in reputable academic journals in many different areas of psychology. To give you a flavour there is a series on the top 10 social psychology studies, the 7 sins of memory and the psychology of money.

 Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly editable model. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.

Dictionary.com:

Dictionary.com LLC’s online and mobile properties are destinations for learning. Our goal: to empower word discovery and learning. We provide resources that create success for users in their schoolwork, careers, relationships, and life.

Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students: E. Shelley Reid

This article was about different ways of writing. When I read this article I was like "gosh", Why are there so many way of writing?  The author starts off by saying that "writing is hard", she also said that writing is made harder than it has to be when we try to follow too many rules for writing. Why are there many rules to writing? In English class when the teacher says "take out a piece of paper and write down what you think about the class". So I would write what was in my head onto this white, spaced line sheet of paper. Didn't know anything about rhetorical and rules of writing. SO I WAS RIGHT!!!! Although writing is hard there are many rules and ways of writing. What I have to do is like the article says, free myself from the rules and learn to make rhetorical decision.

Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking) Janet Boyd

MURDER!!!!! this is the only expression that came to my mind when I looked at the title. I though I was finally going to read something that peeks my attention, but surely the title was a attention grabber because when I saw it I wanted to read on. Amazing as it may seem, what came to mind is, I have an assignment that I can read and give my opinion on instead of just English stuff.  That was not the case, In the article Murder! by Janet Boyd, In her articles, she says that we should be getting in Touch with Our Inner Detective to deciper what ever we are reading. When we are reading or writing books, article, magazine, or essay, she thinks it's best that we think like detectives, and ask questions; like Who, What, Where, When, and How. Although this is great, they are also Rhetorical. Why do I want to persuade my audience on what I have written? Mrs. Boyd says that "choosing how to express your meaning is every bit as important as the message itself, which is really what rhetoric is". when I begin to write or when I'm communicating with someone, I do not think about what I'm about to say or how I will be saying it. It's just something that I don't do. Thank the Creator for Parents, Teachers, and Professors because I will be lost. This article tought me alot about myself and broght out the writer in me.

MURDER

Who: John Washington

What: Murder

Where: Pool

When:2:00p.m. June 18, 2012

How: Gun shot wound/back of the head

Lawyer

State of Alabama -vs- Mrs John Washington

My client Mr. John Washington was murder on June 18, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. with a gun shot wound to the back of the head in his pool. I'm appealing to the court that justice has to be served. This man had a big heart and enjoy helping others. He has a 12 year old son, and two daughter that are 6 and 3 years of age. This was a devestating death that should not of happen. The evidence leads to his wife of 6 years. In a statement Mrs. Washington lied about her whereabout, and evidence leads to her being at home at the time of death.


Detective

On or about Monday, June 18, 2012 at 2:00p.m. I responded to a call of a murder in the residence of 1414 Day St. Victim wsa found floating in a pool with a gun shot wound to the back of the head. The victim was also identified as John Washington and there were no signs of struggle and no witnesses at this time.


Coroner

On Monday, June 18, 2012 at 4:00p.m. I received a body of a black male, 42 years of age with a bullet in larged in the back of the head. Time of death suggest that he died on impact.

Next-of-Kin (Eulogy) Sister

We would alway tease Jon Jon for his ability to make funny face and make people smile. My brother was a good person who enjoyed helping people out. He loves donating to different ministries, fixing neighbors cars and lending money. This death hurts our family alot, and we don't know of anyone who could have done this to him. He is a caring man with 3 children, why do his children have to wake up in the morning and not see their father. This is tragic and I hope they catch the person who did this.

Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors Into Research Skills

Randall McClure information on Googlepedia shines light on another way we can search for information. Here, I learned a lot about studies that have been going on for the last decade and how researching information for writing has advanced for this advancing world, we live in. I do not have to run to the library and get books, and I no longer have to buy large collections of encyclopedias. My oldest sister still has a collection of Encyclopedias in her home, I guess she's not hip to the internet and what it has to offer. Mr. McClure talks about blended research, Google and Wikipedia. The web along with Wikipedia and Googlepedia has modernized how research is done, In todays student body as a whole and writers as well. Now we use information literacy through the American Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries to keep up with the demands of a changing world, more and more researchers are beginning to turn to Google and Wikipedia mainly because its easy access and right at the palms of our hands and in the privacy of our own home, at schhols, even at public libraries. Google is a very popular search engine. I am beginning to automatically go directly to it when I log on to my personal computer. It makes whatever I'm searching for, so easy to locate and gather information. I don't use the yellow pages or a paper dictionary anymore. This digital boom we are in has taken over. It's good to hear that I need to research more than one source when I'm using Wikipedia and Googlepedia; It's resourceful. but, as I remember what James P. Purdy (Wikipedia Is Good for You!?) wrote about Wikipedia, the information can change from the first time that I used it as a reference. Randall McClure also points out the importance of making sure when gathering information, we should make sure that we can reference our findings back to the source, or Author and note the ending such as; gov, edu, net, etc., that way this will be the indicator of where the source of the research is coming from or where the information will originate. this kind of Information is where I can find the credibility of the source.

Wikipedia is Good for You?

James P. Purdy's, source, Wikipedia is Good for You? Pin points different ideals about using wikipedia. James looks at wikipedia as a reference or starting place, and as I view wikipedia it can assist me with finding other terms and ideas which as a result, help me develop my thinking. Once my mind is open for more thoughts, my writing will improve. So, wikipedia can be good for you if its utilized correctly. Knowing that wikipedia is not to be utilized as my main source is one important fact because all the information is not correct. So, I understand to read other soruces to verify information.  Wikipedia information does not remain the same, so I may not be able to go back to the information and reference anything from it later. As a result, I understand to use wikipedia as a source and a process guide. This way, I am safe from the negative points in using wikipedia. Like unreliable and constant changing of what can be posted in wikipedia and later change. Mr. Purdy information on sharing your writing is a very good way to hear from my peers and at the same time, I don't put it off, I can have time to make corrections and or add to my writing once other students or staff gives feedback positive and constructive feedback will give me more motivation and determination in my writing. Also, as others do the same to assist me with my writing. it seems, wikipedia has it advantages and disadvantages just like the Encyclopedia and I should always take time to check my sources by viewing other source to verify and compare the facts I will find. 

"Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web by Alex Reid/ Web Style Writing Guide 1.0

Alex Reid's Why Blog? points out the next popular thing to do in tis digital day and time that we are living in. Blogger dates back some time ago; however, Mr. Reid states the use of blogger really started to bloom after the now famous 9/11 tragety. this poiaganet event happened in 2001 and will be apart of our history. It marks the turn of events for this world as we know it. Sharing information about the Web, News, Sports, World Events, and in short, the media is made short by just blogging the information. When Google started the blogger, it made adding information to the web like natural cures and remedies to problems when normally one would have to get medicine from a doctor. Also, facts about our human make-up, different books on human creations and who the Creator is easily added now to the web. Theres many blogs posted to suit individual interest. It can be read and studied to assist with writing a personal blog on whatever a person is interested in, studying or writing a blog that relates to a career interest. With the professional- academic interest and experiences, this example makes a great long-term goal. Writing short blogs can be viewed like keeping a diary or journal when talking about helping personal writing skills. As we continue writing blogs, improvement and the ease of writing for college courses improves. If I struggles with writing, developing a habit of blogging can improve the interest of writing and aid in direction of where I may want to go in my career path. Now this will be an advantage of personal development by utilizing blogs. The Web links blogs from other culture around the world,That's even more places to get ideals and knowledge from. Mr. Reid discuss reading responses from others before posting their blog on yours. you would wqnt to protect your creditbility. There are some people that just find fault with everything and everyone is not going to agree all the time. But, as Mr. Reid states we must be purposed driven in our writing. This is how we can get the audience that we're looking for which will help filter negative feedback. A suggestion used to help be purposed driven in our blogs is to select a topic that we're really interested in, especially one that get our attention or moves us. Something we have a passion for or a talent in. This will help you keep a steady flow and over all help improve in the interest in writing or just improve your writing skills. Also, to keep the flow going, look at related blogs that's similar to the topic we have selected. Google has a large selection to search for related topics.

The Sixth Paragraph: A Re-Vision of the Essay (Paul Lynch) & Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking? (Sandra Giles)

In these great articles, I would like to first say that I didn't enjoy reading it because it hit home.In Elementary school all the way to High School I avoided writing papers and essays. I didn't want to do them because "I DO NOT LIKE WRITING"!!!! My reason are because when I would write an essay, I would write what I though was good writing, but once the teacher handed me the essay back RED marks were everywhere. I'm learning alot being in English 0100, and it's helping me to  learn how to write, and hold my audience attention. So the authors purpose for their piece of writing is to inform the reader that in order to success you would have to write. The language that the author used was perfectly appropriate and understandable, very persuasive. Both authors cites books and articles in their writings. The advantages if I tried this same technique in my writing would be all A's. These are perfect examples to follow when writing. The techniques I would use is write, then write again, them revise and persuade.