Myblog's Blog

5/5/10

jcaitken88 — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:59:02 +0000

So today is wed, meaning in one week it will be time for the papers to be handed in. I’m ready for it, I know it. I have been working my ass off this week to redo a lot of things in the paper, and that has given me an extra 6 pages of information. I think everything started to fall together at some point and it just clicked. I was like “Ok, game time.” So all last weekend and up to yesterday I made myself spend 2-3 hours a day on it. And I can see that it paid off. I’m really happy about this paper, it’s really weird actually. Usually I don’t care but I think since I applied myself to much and actually worked hard that I appreciate it even more. It’s a great feeling and I deserve to have the smile on my face every time I think of the paper.

I still have some information to add to it, maybe another 3 or so pages and that will be completed by this weekend so that hopefully I can meet with you at least once more before everything is donezoh. Other than that, the RA is going good I guess, I’m not sure if there is a “right” and “wrong” way of doing it so I hope I did it correct. Its 5 pages and It covers all the things you mentioned to cover, along with a few random things but overall its legit I think. Well only a few more of these blogs to go so next weeks will be allllll about how happy I am the papers are in and DONE finally. I can’t wait for that stress to be lifted off my shoulders.

4/27/10

jcaitken88 — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 04:20:39 +0000

Well, it’s getting down to the last few weeks of school, so that means the paper is due soon. Its coming along GREAT! I have spent countless hours in libraries, I’ve read so many books, I have been staying home on weekends to make new drafts, come up with new ideas, read, everything that can make this paper good, I have tried to do. I can honestly say I am very proud of myself on the effort I have put in to this. Most papers have been a joke to me, and I try to find easy ways out of them but this paper wouldn’t let me.

I loved that about it…it FORCED me to apply myself, to test my knowledge, to go beyond my comfort zone in order to create the work of art I have made. By work of art, I do not mean this is the best paper that has ever been written, and that everyone in the world should read it…I mean that TO ME, it’s the best thing I have produced in my 21 years of life, and that makes me happy. I have come along way in my writing career and I have to say I feel like there is nowhere else to go from here, except up. I can look back and see how much I have improved in my life with my education and its a great feeling to see I have been doing better and better as the years go on. Taking your class has been a wonderful decision ( I say that because I was going to try to test out of it, but decided it would be smart to get refreshed with english instead).

So, I hope I still feel this way next week or so when its go time for handing them in, but I’m sure with your guidance that I will be ok and I will do well. Thanks again for everything, you’re a really great teacher…no matter what anyone tells you.

4/21/10

jcaitken88 — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:11:28 +0000

All this week I have been working on my drafts. I think it is going well, but there are some rough spots I have to work out still. But its cool because we have a while to go. I have been coming up with some really good stuff though, but I’m not sure on the transitions I’m doing. Like from one point to another, and some of the first sentences of the paragraphs don’t sound strong enough. I keep tweaking them around though so I’ll find something that will work.

My group and I are meeting up today in the library I think to look over them and do what we have been doing in class. That will be helpful because Friday is our conference so we get tomorrow and thursday night both to make revisions and then also to critique the papers more too. They have given me a few good ideas now, so I’m glad we have the groups. I never had a system like that, my papers were always done by just me…I always wanted other people to look at them but we never “had” to so I didn’t bother. A few classes had you switch with the person next to you, but they wouldn’t care about it…they looked it over, maybe, and then that was it basically. Ha.

4/12/10

jcaitken88 — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:51:29 +0000

Writing is going well, I thought I did well on 16 but I don’t know anymore after hearing the discussion in class. I think at some point I’ll figure it all out and things will come together better. I have found a lot of helpful sources, and I even checked out another two books today so I’ll see how those help.

My group and I are doing well, we are seeming a bit slow and shy but maybe with a little time we will get it together and figure it out. I think we are trying to get together after class to further our papers success so I’m hoping that will go well.

We are close to the end, so now is the time when the papers will start forming more and we will be able to focus more on what the papers need rather than just doing random activities ( which isn’t a bad thing).

Overall I am happy with the direction of my paper and I think now that its “go” time that writing a lot of drafts is going to help make it into the paper I see at the end of the tunnel, rather than the huge stack of randomness I sometimes see it being.

4/5/10

jcaitken88 — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:02:46 +0000

I still feel weird about my paper, every time I think I have this great idea, or I think I find something that will really help…I somehow doubt myself enough to think I’m doing it wrong, or I’ll never be able to make sense of it enough to put it on paper. I’m actually kinda tweakin about it a lot lately. I want this to work out well, I have even been reading the books I checked out in hopes that I will learn enough to make a good paper, but still I don’t know if I’m doing is right or not. I doubt myself a lot, I think it’s because I always think I can be “doing better” and for some reason what I do isn’t as good as what others do. Its annoying, but I cant seem to figure out yet how to fix it. Ugh.

The assignments seem to be going well so far, I sometimes don’t know if I’m doing them the right way but I still do them every week and usually I at least learn something from them. Despite me always wondering if what I’m doing is good enough or not, I still think I’m learning a lot from the class and the assignments. I have never been so concerned on doing well on papers and actually making sense in them. I know that sounds weird but usually I don’t care about my papers and I just got as much info that I can find on the internet and slapped it together and did good on it. This paper is challenging me to actually do more work and put more thought in it. I like that, its pushing me to do better things which I know will only help me in the long run.

So yeah, overall things are good I guess. I think I’ll be second guessing myself until the second I hand in my final paper. But random stuff now…Boston beat New York for the opening game. Sweeeet. My new DC shoes are coming in ( I think the 7th, so that’s wed) and I just looked at the score for Milwaukee’s opening day (at 3pm) and it’s not looking too hot for them.

3/29/10

jcaitken88 — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:23:23 +0000

Is the point of blogs to see what we learn from class, or to learn more about students and how we think about and see things. I wondered that for a while now. Anyways, the writing has been going well. For assignment 14 I didn’t do an actual “paper” because I didn’t think I had enough knowledge of what I am talking about. So I just broke it down into the books I read, and then I put all the notes that I felt would help me. My bad if it wasnt like it should have been, but I think how I did it will help me down the road. I need to have things done and organized a certain way for me to understand it fully so that’s what I’m doing with this paper. I think once I start writing the actual paper I will be asking you a lot more questions about it. I am pretty worried about it not passing or anything and plus I want to make this paper one of my best. I am putting a lot of time into it so I dont want to have that be wasted. I like the books I am reading, I think not only have they made me interested in new thing subjects but also its opening up my imagination to trying new things and looking outside of my typical perspective. All in all, I think things are going well and I’m excited to see how it turns out.

3/15/2010

jcaitken88 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:55:44 +0000

This week we worked on assignment 12 and furthering what our questions are going to be. I have a basic idea of my question, and that’s something to do with depression/anxiety being genetically passed on, or like the nature/nurture debate…something that is picked up along the road of life. I have found a lot of really good sources that are going to help generate a lot of ideas. One thing I’m worried about is time though. I am really excited about this paper and I want to do good but it seems like if I want to do amazing I’m going to have to step up my game and put in more effort. I don’t have a problem with that, I’m just bad at balancing time well. I also have other stuff to do so it makes it harder….but thats life so I’ll figure something out.

I think for all the book sources I have I’m going to check the books out of the library so I can read more into them and maybe find more information to help me. I also want to try to get more sources to use, I currently have 4 as of now but I hope to get a few more. No more than 10 I would assume but I’m not sure.

I do know however, that I am learning soooooo much about research and better ways to do it. I also saw conversational pieces that the sources could offer in my paper to make it flow together much nicer and to help support my ideas. I’m nervous about how everything will turn out in the end, but for now I’m making sure to bust my ass so I do as best as I can.

3/9/10

jcaitken88 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:31:18 +0000

So I wasnt sure if I needed to do a blog for this week but I am going to regardless. I havent done anything related to english to be honest…I have been focused on my other classes since I have tests and stuff to worry about but I keep thinking about the question I want to do for the paper. I have a lot of random ideas that come to mind but nothing seems like it will work “good enough” or I feel I wont be able to do it the way its suppose to be done. I think I’m just worrying too much about it. It can’t be that hard, its english 102 not like english 7hundo if that is even an actual class.

My source of inspiration for the question is coming from the thoughts that come to me, and also what I want to know about. I want the paper to be something I’m asking and answering for the purpose of passing of course and for me too. I want it to be a chance for me to learn something new about something I’m interested in. I have a few days until our get together so I’ll make sure to come up with things to help me with the direction of my topic and to be well prepared for our talk.

3/1/10

jcaitken88 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:32:53 +0000

This week’s blog is focused on the research paper we are going to be doing. So in my opinion, it seems rather difficult so far. I am having a very difficult time coming up with a “good” question. I know what I like, and enjoy learning about…but I dont know if that can be formulated into this paper…and supported by the articles I have.

Which brings me to another point, I dont like the articles I picked out a few weeks ago. They are scientific classification, classification of human language, and the politics of metaphors. I want to do my paper on something psychology related I think…or something that fascinates me enough to motivate me to want to do the best job possible. I dont know why but I notice that if I do something I dont care about, or want to do…I only do it “good enough” to be considered done and good. But if its something I want to do…I go all out and try to make it amazing.

Other than the paper, class in general is going well, I actually look forward to your class ( which is funny, because I always hated english classes, no offense ). I always feel smart after the class, I feel like I’m learning a lot, and everyone is really nice in there too. Its a good atmosphere to be in, so I’m diggin that. The assignments are going well too, they are progressively getting more difficult in my opinion however it isnt anything too extreme. I think they are actually going to become a huge benifit once it comes down to writing the final paper.

2/22/10

jcaitken88 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:01:49 +0000

So friday was a lot of fun, I was able to figure out how to use the UWM libraries research tools, and also I was able to become familiar with what types of articles are best for me to use. After that session I felt a lot better because I wasnt sure where I would gather all my information for the research project but now I know.

All of the assignments we have had so far ( 1-8 ) have been a lot of fun for me, its amazing how my first assignment was only a page and then after that it has become progressively easier to compose more and more and I have learned new ways to make papers better so my writting skills have become much stronger too.

It seems like all great things are happening with this class ( which wasn’t what I thought would occur day 1 ) and I’m learning a lot. The only thing I’m worried about is if my research paper will turn out. I’m not sure of what I’ll do it on but I know I’ll do my best with it. I would like to focus on something psychology related I think because when I do assignments that are easy for me to relate to I seem to do better and I’m also more interested in finding out a lot of information on it. But I have time to ponder ideas still so I’ll keep an open mind.