Lesson 15, #1, Write a letter to someone (other than your instructor) introducing yourself as a writer.

January 9, 2011

Caroline Wolf

Special Education Coordinator

West Valley High School

3800 Geist Road

Fairbanks, AK 99709

Dear Ms. Wolf:

I want to thank you for your support of me to work hard at the University Alaska of Fairbanks. I love that you encouraged me to succeed. If not for you, I would have lost the motivation to stay in school and become successful. Now I know that I can do anything and be a success because you had shown me that I can be successful in the end.

I support your special education program. I have been spending time working with some students and I can see that they need more help with their English. I would like to help them someday. Now I am successful in college and I am improving in my use of the English language. I hope that you can read my resume and see the accomplishments I have achieved in my English courses.

Thank you for your time to read this letter. If you have any questions or concerns for me, I would love to take the time to work with you. Once again, thank you.

Sincerely,

Kimberly MacLeod

Student

Enc.

 

Kimberly MacLeod

kfmacleod@alaska.edu

Objective         To improving writing, expand ideas, and strength through written experience

Academic Writing Experience

Fall 2010:        University Alaska of Fairbanks

American Sign Language III-ASLG F203

·         “Education for Deaf People”: Wrote a 3-page comparative essay about deaf resident schools and mainstream schools for deaf students

Methods of Written Communication-ENGL F111X

·         “I Can Exist in a Hearing World”: Wrote a 3-page essay about an experience in my life where I learned about myself

·          “Education for Deaf People”: Wrote a 2-page one-sided argument essay about an experience of a strength or weakness in my life

·         “A Chance for the Next Generation of Native Americans”: Wrote a 4-page argument essay about Effie Kokrine Charter School

·         “Homeschool is the Best Education for Children”: Wrote a 5-page argument essay about homeschool education

Additional Writing Experience

Summer 2010: University Alaska of Fairbanks

·         Wrote and presented reports to the  Director of The Office of Equal Opportunity and supervisor of Student Support Services program

Spring 2010:    Kaleidoscope in Motion Home School

·         Wrote a syllabus for the semester

·         Prepared and presented reports to parent

Lesson 14, #1, On your blog, write about what you wish you had done differently while you worked on your paper.

It would be nice if I didn’t have writer’s block that prevented me from finishing the first draft earlier so I could visit the Writing Center. I could improve on how to better ask questions of a librarian to help me find correct sources easier. I also would have liked it if my health problems didn’t affect me during the fall, then I could have kept on track with my English course more easily. I know that I’m not regretting the topic that I chose for my research paper. I want to learn more about homosexuals and their fight for equal rights. This research helped me to learn about some issues for homosexuals. I do regret that I couldn’t find anything about the opposing side’s perspective on homosexuals in the military. I also need to remind myself next time to not collect a lot of sources in one day or that could turn me off from focusing on the research.

Lesson 13, #1, Write about your experience consulting with someone about your writing. Include what that person told you about your writing.

I totally forgot that the Writing Center is closed during the winter break. I was so busy with other classes and focusing on finals. Then, I decided to take a break from school to enjoy the holidays. That was my mistake. I asked my dad to help me with my research paper. He is my consultation. I don’t have anybody to ask for help. I’m glad that my dad was willing to take the time to read seven papers and give me some feedback on them. He enjoyed seeing my opinion on the topic of homosexuals and their fight for equal rights. My dad and I discussed the topic and both of our opinions are mostly the same. He was surprised at my sources and learning something new about the topic. My dad wants to learn more about the sources that I have been collecting. I also explained to him about the history of homosexuals. He actually learned something from my paper and I feel so good about that. I also learned something new from reading over 20 different sources. I enjoy learning more about homosexual rights because I keep on hearing many current events related to homosexuals. I learned that I have improved on writing and my skill has improved on the essay format. My dad told me that my writing has been improving. I also feel that I have been learning a lot about the essay format from my English 111x course. I’m glad that I decided to take this course and it helped me learn something new about writing. I know that I still have problems with grammar. My dad can see that I am slowly improving on grammar. He also helped me with my grammar by editing my paper. I need to remind myself to stop and read over my paper to see if it is making sense to me. Then, I can start adding more information to my paper. That was a suggestion from my dad. I also noticed that I have struggled a bit with some of the paragraphs that do not look like they flow well into other paragraphs. I was concerned about that part and my dad feels that it is flowing better but still needs bit more something. I was not sure if I should add more source information or I should reduce on sources? I debated with myself about if I should add one more visual element in my paper. I did not realize that doing this research paper would take so much time to complete. I have learned that now and I will improve on it the next time. I’m glad that I have been improving on MLA formats, essay format, and my skills in writing. I hope that my research paper will turn out good. I feel a bit frustrated about the opposing paragraph because I know that it was not my best work. I wish that I could have found one source that supported the idea that homosexuals should not be allowed in the military. I could not find at least one and I feel so frustrated. Maybe I should have asked a librarian for help but I had asked them three times for help on adopting, marriage and equal rights. I also learned that I should ask a librarian for assistance by using better and more focused questions.

Lesson 11, #1, Write about your experience summarizing the reading.

I dislike summarizing what I have finished reading because I do not enjoy it and I am not interested in it. I have been struggling to understand the articles, and I’ve been trying to understand what their concepts are. I have to search for claims, thesis ideas, and major concepts. When I finally understand what the article is about, I then start to struggle again, but this time about if I should use the information from the article or if I should not. It is a challenge to find an article that you want for the research paper. When I finally found some articles that seem interesting, I start to read it. I start to feel confused and I start to have a headache as I try to interpret the article. I try to see if it makes enough sense for the research paper and I see if I need anything from the article. I to start feel a bit overwhelmed from searching numerous amounts of sources and interpreting those. It makes me feel tired and less interested to search for more sources. I hate when that happens to me because it causes me to feel sleepy as I try to interpret the not-so-interesting source. Sometimes, I will wonder about why I choose those useless sources. I am glad that I took the Library Information and Research course last year because it has proved to be helpful and a valuable resource. It has helped me in collecting better and stronger sources. But sometimes I will find useless sources from the many search engines on the internet. I still have to learn more about search engines to improve on my research process. When I have a good article, I can understand it easier and it’s easier for me to summarize those specific articles. I can read them and look for their claims and thesis ideas. I usually start to collect information and combine it for my paper. I have noticed that most of the time when I start sketching an outline or writing out notes that I mark each article with a hi-lighter so I can keep track of it and keep it organized. I use different colored markings for the thesis ideas, claims, and opposing views. This organizational process is a way for myself to keep track of all sources and then write down what each color means on post it notes on top of the papers. I started organizing post it notes to see which sources are the ones that I want to put into my research paper. Summarizing is a good way for me to start figuring out which sources are good or not so good for the paper. I feel that I prefer summarizing on post it notes instead of write down the summary on paper because it is not an interesting process, in my opinion, and does not appeal to me. I don’t believe I’ve ever learned the proper way to summarize in a formal paragraph. I have finally learned how to process writing summaries for research papers this semester. I still have to practice more on summarizing in the future. I need to get used to summarizing and writing in the correct and formal format. I can’t wait to improve on my summarizing skills.

Lesson 10, #1, The subject of the journal entry on your blog for this lesson is one of your choosing.

I’ve started to feel a bit overwhelmed with the research and trying to complete it. My brain can’t keep up with everything. I still haven’t finished with the research on opposing views, same sex marriage, and discrimination against homosexuals. I’m still trying to decide if I should research homosexual relationships and adopting children. I’m still thinking about if I should switch the adoption issues with religious issues. I wonder if the paper will be stronger if I decide to change it. I feel a bit pressured to finish everything by the deadline. I know that when Thanksgiving arrives I will be crazier than before. I’m almost finished with sketching ideas for an outline so I can see what my paper should look like. I’ve been curious about if I should interview some of my friends to see their views on equal rights for homosexuals. I’ve been thinking about if I should have more visual elements in my essay or not. I’m still not sure if I can have more visual elements on my paper. I need check with Hacker’s writing reference textbook and Writing Argument textbook to see if it has any rules about visual elements. I’ve been wondering about why I decided on this topic then I remember that I don’t have any idea about homosexuals’ battles for their equal rights. This topic is perfect to educate me to understand their side’s point of view. I even learned about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law that our former President Bill Clinton designed for homosexuals in the military. I’ve been wondering if we have more laws for homosexuals or not. I need to start research again at this weekend. Looks like I won’t be able to sleep in for the weekends, because those are the only days I have to do a lot of research.

Lesson 9, #1, Why am I feeling threatened by this research paper (if you are)? or Why am I feeling confident about this research paper?

Well, I feel a bit threatened and confident at the same time. I have a lot of good, strong sources to support my paper to prove my claims about homosexuals and their equal rights. However, I also feel a bit threatened by how difficult it is to understand some articles, laws, and newspapers. I decided to keep on researching and try my best to interpret the sources. I started to learn a lot about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. I heard about that law before but I didn’t understand why people made such a big deal out of it, but now I finally understand. I can’t wait to learn more about homosexual’s equal rights in marriage and religion. I also can’t wait to learn about the opposing view as well. I feel a bit threatened, again, on the timeline to complete this paper. I’m hopeful that I will successfully complete this paper by the due date.

Lesson 9, #1, What do I need outside help with?

I need help with editing, revising, and seeing if my paper flows smoothly or not. I already talk to the library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for help to find more information about homosexuality in politics and law in the articles databank. I needed my father to help me with the laws because he is good at explaining laws to me. I already asked him about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Sometimes, laws can be difficult to understand.