Unit 7- Ah-Ha!!

     When it comes to peer reviews, I love them.  I love any feed back that I get.  From a teacher, friend, classmate, or even my husband.  I think that it is easier to see what needs work when you have fresh eyes and different people reading my paper. The feedback that I recieved was very helpful.
      You know, I really haven't had too many ah-ha moments when it comes to the writing process.  When it comes to this actual paper, one sort of Ah-ha moment was when I was trying to figure out what my order should be.  What I should start with first and what I should end with.  I chose to go with a natural order.  Surprisingly, that was my ah-ha moment. I thin it made things easier to go with a natural process instead of going with a different one. 
     From classes I have taken before, I had a pretty good idea about my topic.  I think the only thing that was a little shocking for me was that there were as many women who use drugs while pregnant.  The idea of intentionally harming a child in any other aspect of life is considered to be a crime, but for some reason a woman can polute her body with drugs and damage or harm her baby and it is ok.  So un fair!
     I know life can be unfair, and sometimes quite honestly down right crappy!  Sometimes I think there should be new regulations about stuff like this, but people in charge think there are way too many things that are more important.  Anyway, life is unfair, but you need to make it as good as you can with what you have!
    

Unit 6- Trials and Tribulations...but, Life Still Goes On.

Where to begin, where to begin...In the past six weeks there have been so many thing that could have easily detered me from working on school. Just the fact that I am away from my family and friends, living in a foreign country is enough to make me want to attempt to take away any other stress in my life. My family and I have been in South Korea for almost a year now, and the longer we are here the harder it is to stay positive and focused on school.  Don't get me wrong, the chance to see another country is a wonderful experience, but since my husband and I got married, we have always been close to family, and this is the first real time that we have been more than a state away.  I feel guilty for taking our daughter away from the one thing she has ever known and all of the family she was used to seeing on a daily basis.  Other than that, I really haven't had to deal with a whole lot.  Surprisingly, a foreign country is rather stressful.

For this second part, I am a little fuzzy about what to say.  I think that my strong feelings and ideas about this topic will help me to find the reasearch that best conveys how I feel.  When I have a topic that I truely care about, I tend to reasearch more and find the most accurate information I can find. 

Unit 5- My prewriting styles

My personal prewriting style is relatively versatile.  Depending on what I am writing about and whether I was able to choose the topic play a huge part in the style I use.  For example, last term in CM109 we had a list of topics that we were able to choose from for our final paper, and none of them were really my cup of tea so I used very structured prewriting. Outlining and bubbling were the two types I used.  When I do not really care for the topic, it takes a little more effort to come up with strong supporting ideas. After I have come up with the supporting ideas, I typically write a very rough draft, print it out and chicken scratch all over it with corrections and new ideas.  This is actually a process I do with every draft all the way up until my final paper. 

One of my biggest academic challenges is anxiety.  Being something that I have delt with my whole life, I have found ways to combat it, but it can still cause some problems during school.  Anxiety seems to pop up in the most random places for me.  I can generally take a test with little anxiety, but when it comes to learning new material and actually using it in a daily setting, I tend to second guess my self and become very anxious.  It is something that I am continuiously working on, and hope to have under controll by the time I am finished with my degree.

The biggest way that school has influenced my life is by giving me something to work towards.  I have always wanted to go to school and continue my education, but life always got in the way.  I have a 2 year old daughter and she is my world, and when I made the decision to go back to school she was a large part of my motivation. I want her to grow up knowing the importance of education and wanting to further hers as well.  I wanted to make a concious decision to not let life get in the way of my goals.  I could have easily taken the easy route and said I am moving to South Korea, so school will have to wait, but I chose to use the time while are here to work on school.

Unit 4- Plagiarism

Aside from having a well written paper, citing sources is the next most important thing in my book.  When people have to use some type of reference or source to add information to their paper, it is super important to cite the source they used.  One of the biggest reasons why citing is important is becuse credit needs to be given when it is due.  I am sure that anyone who came up with an idea or work of art would want credit for their own work.  If I take a photograph of something, I do not want people taking my work and passing it off for their own. 

I actually have had someone take some of my work.  I am passionate about photography, I do not consider my self a photographer, and I am a little posessive of my work.  I have had family members who have done everything but disown my husband and I, but still copy and paste my photos to their social network profiles and take the credit for the pictures.  It is a very angering thing.  I have not done much about it because I don't like to step on anyones toes, but I am constantly getting mine stepped on. 

Real world and professional issues with plagairism should all be delt with in some way, but not necessairly in the same way.  No one should be able to get away with plagiarism, but there are differnet degrees of it. If a person were working in a group and took total and full credit for the work, that would not be delt with as harshly as if someone blatently stole an entire idea or project from someone and passed it off as their own.  Plagiarism is serious and should be delt with accordingly.

I do think that the internet can sometimes blur the lines of what is plagiarised and what is not.  There are some websites and pages on the internet who may get their information from sources and cite them, but there are others where no credit is given.  I also do think that when people go online it is hard to monitor and control the sources and whether they are cited or not. The internet makes things complicated, but using credited sources when looking for resources is very important.

Being an online student works for me!

Right out of high school I attempted traditional school where you sit in a class room certain days out of the week and have a very set schedule; I can honnestly say that it was not for me. I tried traditional college twice and both times life seemed to always get in the way.  Granted, both times I went to college before I was young and on my own.  Now I am married, living in a foreign country and a mother.  For most people, the added stress of all of those things would likely prevent them from pushing forward and trying to go to school, but it really does work for me.  I think now I have something to work for (aka my daughter). It is almost like now I have a reason to go to school.  I want my daughter to grow up in an environment where education is high on the list of importance. 
   All of the things that go into being an online student work to my advantage.  When my daughter takes a nap or goes to bed at night I have time to work on school and not have to constantly be distracted.  Luckly she is relatively quiet and self entertaining for a two year old and I am able to work on little parts of school through out the week even when she is awake. 
   One thing I do tend to miss about not going to an actual class room are friendships.  It is still possible to form friendships with online classmates, but it is a little more difficult.  In every class I have always been in I try to let everyone know to add me on facebook so we can bounce ideas off of each other or just be there to support each other.  I actually have two people from my first term at Kaplan that I still talk to on a regular basis and we support each other and are there to help out when we can.