Midterm

1. Dear Friend,

This semester I am taking English 1102.  This class reminds me a lot of AP English in high school, but it varies in many ways, too.  Many of the things I've learned in this class are the basics about writing, specifically the writing process.  Throughout the half-semester - just like English 1101 - we learned about different genres: exploratory essays, annotated bibs and a three-sided research/exploratory essay.  Another thing we learned was to open up in our writing, to take risks and actually enjoy writing.  And of course, a big part of this class is the reflective side to our writing.  For each draft we had to write a cover letter, which helped us think about the writing process.  Doing a blog assignment also caused us to think about the writing process as a whole and some of our later assignments caused us to think reflectively. All of these things are extremely important to becoming a good writer.  By actually thinking about what you write, instead of doing it just to do it and get a grade, it actually makes you think more and you can surprise yourself with what you come up with.

                                                                                                             Sincerely, Jake

2. Annotated Bib Reflection:
I wrote this piece as a starting point for the rest of the semester (for the 3-sided essay and the argumentative essay).  Of course I'll have to do more research during the writing process, but the biggest part of my work is done.  The audience of my piece is anyone who is interested in becoming healthier, or anyone who is interested in exercise in general.  This piece was extremely easy to write.  After I got started, the the hardest part was reading through all of the sources and picking which ones to use.  I've had plenty of practice with bibliographies and the only thing on top of that was just summarizing it and figuring out whether it was credible or not.  Also, because it was structured, i had no trouble figuring out how I wanted/needed to write it (unlike the first essay).  In the revisions, I didn't change very much; the only thing i changed was making the annotations a little longer and adding the few sentences of why it was credible.  This was my first time ever doing an annotated bib so I learned how to do them, but other than that, it was fairly straight-forward.  If someone were to read this, they would learn about what the sources i chose were about and would have a better understanding of my topic in general.  The only thing that I need to revise about my annotated bib is putting the sources in alphabetical order. (It completely slipped my mind after I added the final 3 sources!)

3. I think the book Peace, Butter & Jelly was a good book for us to help "jumpstart" the semester.  If you do the same theme (or a similar theme and/or do a similar assignment), then this would be a good book to use.

4. Finding out how I
want to write an assignment
is the hardest part.

Fourth Post

From this blog, and other English classes, I have learned that the writing process an always evolving thing; the further you get into it, the more and more things can/will change.  Blogs can even help show you how your ideas have progressed throughout the entire process, and not just show the final copy.   Also, from using this blog, it has been easier to get insight into other peoples ideas and to get feedback on your own my quicker and easier.   Along with that, the informality of a blog makes it more a simple/fun assignment, instead of being a normal, traditional English assignment.

This blog assignment has actually been an enjoyable one.  Before I started it, I didn't think I would enjoy it very much.  I figured it'd just be a normal English assignment.  But when I actually started it, I found out that it was much easier to do than some English assignments I've done, and it actually engaged me to think more reflectively than others have.

Second Post

The most interesting article I've found so far is an online article from a swimming magazine. Here is the citation:  Nessel, Ed. "Double Benefits." Swim Magazine 16.2 (2000): 34. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.  This is interesting because it explains how swimming can help no only physically, but emotionally/mentally.  It has actually been observed that swimming and other aerobic forms of exercise have helped people with anxiety, depression, and normalize sleeping patterns (as a college student, we all know sleeping is important). Overall, coronary and panic disorder patients showed the most drastic improvement.  In the same study, exercise has shown similar effects of social contact, psychotherapy, and behavioral interventions. 

Trying to figure something to write about was the longest and hardest part of the process.  I knew I wanted to inquire about swimming in some form, but trying to get a topic that would deal with health and something that I could actually write about over the course of the semester took a while.  After I figured out what I wanted to research, my topic hasn't changed any.  

Surprisingly, even though my topic is fairly specific, i have actually found plenty of sources to use for my paper.  I found 5 just from the day at the library day and 3 that seem legit from a simple Google search.  The only tips i could tell my peers would be to keep looking for sources; there is something you can use out there, even if you have to tweak your question a little.

First Post

My research question for the semester is “The Health Benefits of Swimming Compared to Other Forms of Exercise”

I chose this topic because I am a swimmer and am interested to know whether swimming really is a better form of exercise than running, jogging, biking, etc..

Many people are becoming more and more interested in being healthy/ in shape/ etc.., so by addressing this, it can help people decide what form of exercise that would be the most beneficial. 

I expect to find that swimmer overall is a better form of exercise. For preliminary research I have read many articles, (both in sports magazines and online) and I’ve been a swimmer for 7 years so I know from personal experience.

Most of the articles I’ve looked at have shown exactly what I’ve thought.  A few, however, have shown certain aspects which are better in other exercises, but have said that swimming has more benefits on a larger scale.