Stacey S Blog Prompt

I do not know about anyone else but I am glad that the final draft has been submitted.  I really hope that I do better than I did on the rough draft because it sure did not feel good to know that the overall thought from the professor was one of disappointment.  I can tell you that I was very afraid when I was writing the final draft.  I am not sure how I really feel about having my final draft turned in.  I have mixed thoughts about receiving my final grade because I want to do well but really do not know how I would deal if the outcome was not promising.

      I  read and reread the article several times.  I would discover something new every time I read it.  I wrote comments on the side of the paper and reviewed them.  I would refer to the book.  I had a hard time getting started on the actual writing because everything that I wrote down I could not get them all to correspond together.  I could not get all of the thoughts and ideas put together.  I did finally get a better idea of what was expected or at least I hope.  Keep your fingers crossed.

For the next essay, I plan on using the annotating skills.  I plan to ask questions and try to find answers.  By using  the skills that I obtained from the first essay,  I plan to build on those skills and increase my quality of writing.  I want to change the fact that I want to be more relaxed and not so nervous.  I was so anxious that I  had trouble truly concentrating.  I hope to get a better understanding of what I do wrong and I hope that I am able to change or correct the thinks that I need to improve.  I know that the writing will only get more complex so I have to have the best understanding of the building blocks to even begin to address the next essay.

     As I stated before,  all of the tools that we learned in essay one are the bases of academic writing.  If you are able to critique well, then you should have be able to easily transform you skills to essay 2.  All academic writing starts with a strong understanding of the habits of writing and everything we encounter in essay 1.

 I hope that I did well and I sure hope that I do well on the next essay.

Stacey S.

In this particular blog, I am going to answer several questions that were asked by the professor.  All of these questions have to do with something called a Wiki.  I will discuss my experiences with a wiki and how it relates to group work.

     I have had a pretty amazing experience with using a wiki to do group work.  I had trouble coming up with all the answers to the wiki assignments.  I would probably still be scratching my head had it not been for the help of my classmates.

     My first impression of wiki was a frightening one.  I was very scared to even attempt to try it, Mainly, because anything new in computer technology panics me.  I was uncertain of my ability to grasp the concept and the thought of having everyone see my additions was not reassuring at all.  After using the wiki, I found it to be fairly easy.  I think that it is a fascinating tool and an asset to group work.

     Group work is an important part of higher learning especially in a writing class.  I feel that even the most talented authors have editors.   Students that work together produce better work and learn more by interacting with each other than just with the professor alone.  I had to get over my fear of working with a group.  I have confidence issues but I realized that everyone is just trying to help me become a better writer.  I think that this clearly states the objectives for assigning group work.  You can never stop learning and by expanding your thoughts in a group setting can open your eyes and ears to new things.  I gather helpful information from a group.  For example,  I may have a certain view point on an issue or topic but someone else may share a different viewpoint.  Their view point may be different from mine but it makes me consider what they have said and why.  It prepares us for the real world.  People will always be working in a group.  Being able to work as a team,  allows us as individuals to be better team players and excel in the real world.

     Group work has it challenges and rewards.  It is rewarding to work in  a group because it breaks down certain tasks into pieces.  It saves time, because the work load individually could take longer to complete.    It will reduce stress and the pressure to do the assignments by yourself.  Rewards do come with some challenges.  You may have a team player that is not doing there fair share of the resposibilites.   Another challenging issue could be finding a certain time of day in everyones already busy lives to gather together.  It does help to have email because the task could be broke down into individuals sections that allows them to be completed at different times but also completed by the deadline.

 Stacey S.

     In our lifetime we will make many decisions from the simplest to the most complex and we will consider different criteria for each circumstance.   I can name at least two instances in which I relied on certain criterion to make my decisions.  Firstly, I decided to move to Ohio and live with my now husband, Steve.  I had to leave behind my family and friends and go against religious issues that had been instilled in us.  Secondly, I chose to leave a job that I had been at for twelve years.

     When I graduated in 1995 from college, I was dating Steve who is my husband now.  He lived in Ohio and I lived with my parents in Pennsylvania.  We were already engaged but not married yet.  I had to really think about uprooting and moving from everything that I had know for my entire 21 years of life.   Also, I come from a very religious home and I was deciding to move in with him without being married.  I finally said to myself that you love him and you are going to marry him so this does not really seem like a complicated decision.  I had to do this because my family will always be there for me no matter where I am even if it meant moving to Ohio.  I was starting a new life with someone that needed me too.  In order to make it work, I had to make the choice to leave home and spread my wings.   As far as the religious aspect, my mother respected my decision but I know that she was not very happy.  I was raised that you must be married before you live together.  However, I thought to myself that times are changing and we could live together and still respect my families religious beliefs.  My husband worked two jobs and I worked double shifts, so we never saw each other.

     I had to really evaluate my choice to leave my job.  As soon as I moved to Ohio, I got a job as a server.  I moved up the success ladder to Assistant Manager.  Mostly, I would work seven days a week and  twelve hours a day.  Anytime there was a problem, I was the person who got contacted to fix the situations.  I knew that these conditions were all part of my job but I started to question if this was what I really wanted.    I was missing my children’s soccer and baseball games.  My oldest son races go karts and I was having to here about how he did and watch it on video instead of being there in person.  In 2005,  I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.  I was always in pain had trouble moving my body without discomfort.  I was having problems with some of the changes that my boss had incorporated.   I have always wanted to go back to school and complete my Bachelor’s degree.  All of these things were the criteria that I used to leave my job.  I sacrificed a great paying job to spend more quality time with my family.  I guess the only regret is the length of time it took me to make my decision.  As far as sacrificing the great pay, it was not much of a sacrifice because you can not but any monetary value on family and good health.

 This assignment to write about our “real world” circumstances can be used in writing our Essay .   We were able to use are ability to critique our own situations and make a decision.  This will allow us to be able to use these techniques to write our own essays.  I made certain decisions based on my own criteria but someone else may have read this and might disagree with my choices.   That is what critical thinking is all about, we all make our own assumptions with different views or ways of looking at these different circumstances.

I have a lot of expectations for this course.  I have not had an English class in a long time.  I have never been very confident when it comes to my writing skills.  I have what some people would call mini panick attacks when asked to write anything.   I don’t want to scare anyone, especially the instructor.  I expect to learn to improve my confidence, develop better writing skills.  I can create ideas but sometimes have difficulty expressing them well on paper.  I want to be successful in my computer skills.  I have already learned a lot of new computers techniques.  I hope to learn how to add websites to my work cited page.  I cant not wait to get started and learn to improve my research and critical writing.  As far as the instructor, I hope for her patients in which I am sure that she has a lot.  Also, I know that already she has shown me new techniques and has made my first week very comfortable.

Welcome to Mybgsuonline.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!