Writing Shitty First Drafts

Anne Lamott believes that all writers write shitty first drafts. She states that "the first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour our and then let ir romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later" (Lamott, 1954). I have been working on all of my shitty drafts by reading all of Dr. Seloni and Bee's feedback and making the changes that they recommended. I still need to revise my introduction to make it fit with the rest of my paper better. After that I will read through all of the sections that I have written and polish them up. After I am done with the sections, I will read through the entire paper and try to make the sections flow better.

APA Exercise

1. Adams (2000) states that saccharin, a sweetner that causes tumors in rats, does not cause cancer in humans.

2. Adams, M. A. (2000, May 16). U.S. report adds to list of carcinogens. New York Times, pp. F4.

3. [Saccharin] had been listed [as a potential cancer-causing agent] since 1981.

I-SEARCH: Research Process

In order to find the topic of my social action research project, I thought back to my high school days and what I wanted to change about it. I immediately thought of one my best friends who "came out" during high school and the bullying that he went through. To find sources, first I went to the IUP library website to look up academic articles. I found many interesting sources about the mistreatment or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning, LGBTQ, students this way. The articles I found helped me a lot but, I found the most helpful sources by accident when I went to the library to find a book. The book that I went to look for was in a section that had many other books about the topic. I had not realized that there would have been an entire section of the library devoted to LGBTQ students and the bullying they undergo. To investigate this topic, I have put together a survey that I am going to send to high school teachers. This project has really opened my eyes to the mistreatment that LGBTQ students have encountered in the past and are still encountering today.

Paraphrasing

The use of direct quotations in many student's note taking has become a frequently occuring problem which has led to the overuse of quotations in their final research papers. Final manuscripts should be 90% of your own ideas and writing and only 10% direct quotations. Limiting the number of direct quotations from your sources while taking notes will allow you to easily accomplish this (Lester, 1976).

Tipping Point Reflection

1. As a contributing member of my society, I would like to see the negativity toward homosexual and bisexual individuals diminish. I do not believe that a person should be mentally and physically abused for being who they are. When I become a teacher, I think that I could help tip this social epidemic by showing my students to be themselves and to not judge anyone else. If we were all the same, life would be boring.

2. I found chapter two to be the most influential to me. This chapter had an example that showed how a person's facial expression can change how the people watching that person react. This was interesting to me because as a future educator, I have to be careful not to send the wrong messages to my students.

3. One idea that I will take with me from reading this book is that it only takes one person to start an epidemic. It can apply to my academic life because as a teacher, I will encourage my students to strive to be that one person to start an epidemic and that nothing is too far out of reach.

Chapter 3 Discussion Questions

1. Bernie Goetz is a man who lived in New York City. Three days before Christmas in 1984, he boarded the subway. He noticed that all of the other passengers were staying away from four black men but he decided to sit next to them anyway. The four men approached him and asked for money. Goetz assumed that they were going to mug him and pulled out a gun. He shot all of them once and then noticed the one of the men still moving so he shot him again. He was viewed as a hero and was aquitted on all charges of assult and attempted murder. I believe that Goetz was a cold-blooded murderer. He did not know before he shot the men that they all had criminal backgrounds and all they did was ask him for five dollars. He could have just said said no and there probably would not have been any problem. I believe that Goetz only believed they were dangerous because of their skin color. If they had been four white men asking him for five dollars, he would have probably either given it to him or simply replied no.

5. In his prison experiment, Zimbardo took college students and placed them in a prison-like environment. The students portrayed either a guard or an inmate. Each of the students seemed to become the role they were playing. I believe that if the living conditions in prisons improved, the inmates behavior would definately be impacted. I don't know if that would necessarily be a good thing though. If prison becomes viewed as a safe and good place to be, criminals will not hesitate to commit crimes because prison will no longer be seen as a horrible place to be.

English Conference

On Monday I attended Panel 8 and Panel 17 of the English Undergraduate Conference. Panel 8 was a creative writing panel in which two young women shared very emotional pieces. The first woman shared her prose piece called "Silence" in which she shared what she remembered about her father and his passing when she was only eight years old. It was very touching and inspiring how she was able to share something so personal with complete strangers. The second woman read several of her works. They were all very well written.

Panel 17 was about Identities. The first of the three women to present read a paper that she wrote about how inspired she was when she saw Bill Stickland give a speech at IUP. The second read a paper that she wrote about Islamic phobia and the third read a paper she wrote about Spanish customs. The most interesting fact that I learned was during the third presentation. I did not know prior to the presentation how important family is to Spaniards and how different their customs are compared to ours.