KNOW IT ALL

In KNOW IT ALL Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? by Stacy Schiff, the topic of the use and creation of Wikipedia is discussed in great detail. Authority is defined as the trustworthiness, reliability, and appropriateness of something. In Schiff’s critique she ties in with Internet authority through her idea that there is error in Wikipedia through the Internet use of a wiki allowing everyone to share his or her information. The authority of the Britannica encyclopedia contains errors as well but the authority in this book is claimed to, “have a reputation not for unattainable perfection but for strong scholarship, sound judgment, and disciplined editorial review” (Schiff). The fact that anybody can make changes on the Internet steers it away from having authority. “there is no way to know which facts in an entry to trust”(Cauz). The Internet can be trusted to an extent but there is no verification of what specifically can be trusted without checking it amongst other sources other than the Internet. Knowledge Authority is held by anybody that has information no matter who they are, if it is correct and based upon an area that they know a lot about. For example I will know more about myself than anybody else, so I have the authority for that subject even though I am not a brilliant researcher. “a system that does not favor the Ph.D. over the well-read fifteen-year-old” (Schiff). All that matters is the knowledge that a person has and that it is correct, the person delivering the information doesn’t matter. Especially as the names of the people can be anonymous on Wikipedia the person behind the information could be anybody.

They Say I Say Readings

Chapter Two: “Her Point Is” The Art of Summarizing

There are a few reasons why summarizing is avoided, either an author doesn’t want to take time to go back and look deep at the text or they don’t want their ideas to be pushed to the side. Sometimes summarizing can be done n the wrong way and sound like a list, boring the reader from the beginning. Unless the summary is of a satirical nature, a good balance between the original authors writing and the writer’s point of view. It’s important to be able to summarize without putting your point of view on it just yet because otherwise it will be biased. A summary shouldn’t be too brief, if it is then it seems as if the author hasn’t actually paid attention to what they are talking about. Another situation that may happen when you can’t put yourself in the other person’s shoes is that you may begin to make assumptions and lump their point of views in with something they’re not. Although you should summarize by representing the author’s view you must also consider where you are trying to go with it. There are a variety of verbs that may be used to help specify what the author’s emotions or intentions are behind it.

Chapter Three: “As He Himself Puts It” The Art of Quoting

Quoting the exact words of somebody can be very powerful, more powerful than a summary if done correctly because it gives more credibility. Sometimes people may quote too much or too little, it’s important t find a good medium for your writing. A quote must be very relevant to your topic or point and it needs to be surrounded by information so that it’s not just left without any direction or relevance. Writing may change very rapidly so quotes should be checked throughout the process to ensure they maintain their relevance. Surrounding the quote should be an introduction and after the quote their should be an explanation of its worth and meaning. When using quotes, don’t rely solely on it, blend the author’s meaning and apply it to your own thoughts.

Quick Access 28,30,31

28) In Developing a Search Strategy I read that you need to begin with an organized way to collect the information necessary for your research paper and with this collection you also must have an organized way to represent how and what type of information you collected. There are three basic methods that can be used, it just depends what sort of topic you have chosen to research. There are also two different types of sources that can be gotten, primary and secondary. Primary resources are first hand that can be got by surveying or observing things yourself and secondary would be any research done from books and the opinions of experts that you may use. So in order to record all of the information that receive either through surveying, field research, observations made or interviews done there must be a particular style and format that suits it best. Whenever research is done, some details about where it came from should be taken down right away so that it will make a bibliography later much easier. There are two types of bibliographies, working and annotated. A working bibliography is a beginning list of sources that have been gathered together and just have some basic qualities. An annotated bibliography is all of the sources but also the author’s comments about what they got out of the source and what they put towards their research paper.

30) Researching the web wisely is very useful for this research paper that we are writing. Library databases can be very useful and reliable as compared to the general web that anybody can put anything up. One thing I learned was that a URL stands for Universal Resource Locator which makes a lot of sense, when the web is used somebody is usually looking for something or sharing their knowledge, making resources available to all. Search engines can be very useful if your topic is specific enough and you don’t only have to use keywords in order to search I learned that there are broad subject directories available to click on and they get more narrow and bring up some websites that will pertain to your specific topic. There are also search engines that use a bunch of other search engines, which basically is like a mega search engine, which can be useful if your topic is narrow enough, because if it is too broad then too many websites will come up that don’t really have any useful information for you. Once you find the websites, you must decide whether or not they can be trusted. Generally reliable websites have specific endings in the URL that pertain to education or government, they also have authors that are experts in their subjects, they can be print sources that have been put online and they also should have been updated recently so that the information is current.

31) Plagiarism is when you give somebody’s ideas and they appear to be your own. Plagiarism can range from something that is very intentionally wrong like taking a paper bought offline to a small thing like forgetting to put quotation marks on a sentence. Some other countries may consider it acceptable to copy the writing of experts in the subject area even without citing their information. In order to prevent yourself from getting trouble either in school or in the workplace it’s so important to learn about proper citing and quotation techniques. Not only should you make sure to give credit to the sentences that you use in your paper but also to the concepts and ideas that you get from reading the information that’s researched.

Portfolios

In some ways I am more confident about the portfolio due at the end of the semester and in others I am a little nervous about. I am not concerned so much about the formatting and everything that has to go along with the formatting because there was a lot of good examples and very detailed instructions on what to do. I just need to take the time to review it all and not miss anything. I’m also not too concerned with the writing because I feel like there is a lot of time to try and make improvements upon it and we are getting a lot of peers help with our writing skills throughout the semester, so we should be prepared at the end.

I am nervous about the readers not being able to relate and I have never really had my writing looked at without somebody knowing that I wrote it. I feel a little uncomfortable because of this but I think that all f these worries should be washed away through solid hard work throughout this semester and then there will be no way that I don’t end up passing and being able to write for the rest of college.

I feel pretty good about the portfolio and I am glad that there is so much that is preparing me for it. The guidelines and such are very helpful and the passage rates make me feel more at ease with it.

Writing about General Apache & Simplicity

Writing about General Apache was very interesting to me. A teacher trying to write about a student trying to write and express his feelings can seem a little confusing at first. I really enjoyed the fact that this teacher allowed his students to choose topics that particularly interested them, in turn making their writing more powerful and great. It's really meaningful that through sitting down and listening to General Apache's life and experience this teacher was able to compile it into a nice poem that truly expressed and perfectly expressed what went on throughout his life and all of the topics they spoke about in their meetings. This lets me see that the message a writer (General Apache) is always there it's just difficult to express and an experienced writer (Harrington) is able to express it because he has had practice and taken time to write it out. The poem that he has written reflects upon when happened during the Vietnam War and it reflects on the troubles that General Apache has had in the past. In the second to last chunk of the poem it explains how Apache uses the past that he has to help kids with the same sort of problems and he uses his knowledge and experience to do so.

SImplicity by William Zinsser is also very interesting. I never really noticed that some things are so unnecessarily complicated sometimes. It makes sense though that things tend to be complicated, as our brains are complicated themselves. With all of the stimulus and different things going on it is hard to clear our heads and get a straight path and train of thought. People may feel like making things too simple would be bad and perhaps it would make things sound childish or unprofessional. This is not the case at all though. If you would like to get a point across to a maximum amount of people it is best to use language in a way that will apply and be understood by all. Just because language is simple doesn't make it bad, it can be very good, even better than complicated words that cloud up the message you are trying to get across. Like Zinsser says, it takes work and hard work at that so if anybody tries to simplify and be straightforward with their ideas their writing will be simplistic but very powerful, understood and enjoyed by many. He reflects on the different examples of airline pilots, presidents, and authors that use complicated and simple language and he goes on to tell the reader that they can accomplish these things through hard work and clearing of our minds before we can clear up our writing.

After taking the learning style quiz I discovered that I have a slight tendency to learn better from a kinesthetic angle but a close second was visual and reading/writing was pretty close too. I now know that almost any style of learning will generally be good for me as long as it is not aural. With this information I will be able to know that I should listen more carefully and put forth more of an effort to remember the things that I am being told so that I can apply them to other things. When I am hearing things that are said to me it would be helpful to write down as much of it as I can because I am good at keeping things to memory once it goes through my head and transfers down my arm, to my hand, through the pen and onto the paper. Also when classes have labs along the side of lectures I should take advantage of them as much as I can, I definitely should keep involved and not let a partner do a lot of the work because I wont be able to get anything out of it unless I physically participate. This will help me if I have choices of learning through a movie class or like a music class I’ll know that I should probably do a  movie class over a music class because it will be easier. I am glad though that I have three ways that I can learn pretty well from and only one that I’m not so good at learning from. Also now that I know this information about the way that I learn I can apply it not only to the things that I learn in a classroom but also to anything in my life.

Proem

Hi my name’s Kym and I am excited to become a part of this community! In the past I have mainly written things for other English classes based on the books that we read or events that too place. I never really wrote just because I felt like it; there was always an assignment attached. I am not a fan of writing, although I do appreciate the writings of others. I don’t mind writing; it is just not one of the things on my fun list of things to do. My least favorite type of writing is when I’m telling my opinions on things rather than just stating facts.

I speak a little bit of Spanish because I took classes for three and a half years and also a lot of people that lived around me spoke Spanish as either their first or second language. Hopefully in the future I will be able to learn German and a little bit of Russian. I feel like writing can be very different depending upon the language it is originally written in. Knowing this I would like to be able to read books in their natural language instead of a translated version. I don’t read for “fun” necessarily. I read many books that are usually suggested to me by others or that I come across and notice a pretty cover. I try to read books as fast as I can to get them over with, which is sometimes hurtful but also sometimes beneficial.

I came to college so that I could continue learning and so that in the future I won’t be held back by my amount of knowledge. I want to be able to do whatever I want when I want to. Humboldt State in particular caught my eyes because the surrounding area was very beautiful and also because I felt like it was a small enough school so that I wouldn’t be confused or intimidated. My major is General Biology for the moment and eventually as I go through classes I expect this to get much more specific. I will most likely lean towards the marine type of biology or take classes necessary for dental school. As a student I am pretty strong in Science and Math but very weak in Social Sciences and English. I learn best when things are hands on and when I know how things will apply to real life situations.

I came across a quote by Friedrich Nietzche a few days ago in my planner that stated, “the surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” This makes me think about how diverse everyone is on campus and for that matter around the world. I want to make sure that I am accepting and willing to learn about others that are not so much like myself and hopefully apply some things to my life and my writing to improve it.