What I Wish I Could Have Done Different

This is a difficult prompt for my blog for many reasons. Research papers are hard to begin with, time consuming, and it is extremely difficult to jump in and work on something huge in an hour here or there like in other classes.

Besides all the reasons that research papers are hard, who really knows how to do them? What order? If I had a list of everything to do and in what order it would be easy. That is what this English class did for me. By the end of the course I realized that each lesson was a chunk in the final major project. It shortened the process by grouping it into chunks. Taking on each chunk was was feasible. I couldn't have made it any easier. In the end the paper really came together quickly, very surprising to me actually; even though I write most the time like Yoda speaks, there is some grammar rule that is always backwards. I really don't know what I could have done different to be honest.

What I will do is go back through all the lessons and make a list. The list will be called EMERGENCY INFO FOR FUTURE RESEARCH PAPERS and will have numbers from one-to like fourteen with instructions of exactly what to do before continuing. I work well with lists so this will be a good thing to always have on file. Which makes me wonder how many research papers I will actually have to do for my 2 year degree, my 4 year degree and then my masters. The thought is making me want to eat.......popcorn, ice cream and blueberries and pie...any kind of pie. It isn't helping that I am drinking a stress relief magnesium drink right now.

To end this blog, I wouldn't have done anything different because if I didn't have this class to guide me through the process then my paper would be a disaster...like the last one was in Psychology 101. However, once my blood pressure was down again from writing the paper on the teenage brain, I thought that I had done a super duper job. Looking back, and that is figuratively, I AM NOT ACTUALLY GOING to reread that paper, I think that I would scrap the whole project and cry, on my first paper that is, not the one I JUST did for English 111.

Peace out, I must leave, people are knocking at my door.

My Consultation

It all began with going to my first Chemistry class on Tuesday- after getting four people up and dressed, lunches packed, off to school, the bus stop, plucking my eyebrows, and driving 30 minutes in the wrong direction to take the cutest terrorist to daycare. Then another 45 minute drive to school in which I parked at the lower lot to catch the gold shuttle bus to the Nat Sci building.

While riding the shuttle up the hill I called The Writing Center and made an appointment with the writing center up at Gruehning, that wasn't hard at all, really it wasn't. I really need to finish this English class before all the other Chemistry and Biology homework starts to waterfall into my life so when I heard that there was no lab for Tuesday, I dropped in unannounced to The Writing Center disregarding my appointment the next day. I really really really want English to be over at this point and am willing to buy more coffee to keep myself at it.

I hiked up 5 flights of stairs, figuring I can lose some calories too, to the meet three lonely expert English persons suffering from lack of activity. School JUST started, I am sure they were not expecting someone with a nearly completed research paper to walk in the first day of school. They were nearly fighting over me, well kinda. Ian C. won. This is cool, someone you can hand your assignment over to, to read over, and hand it back and say "nice"...NOT!!

Ian asked me what my assignment was, what type of writing project, what did I think I needed the most help with. Then he began reading while I found the water fountain. I really hiked 5 flights of stairs. He read half and then we began to discuss the correct way to make web citations. We had a discussion with a few other English expert fellows that were consulted because Ian wanted pro backup. I hated to disturb their intellectual dialogue on the 80's transformers, storm and sunbot known to have special UV powers but they were ecstatic to join the consultation. We all learned how to properly make unpaginated web references in a research paper. Cool.

The next part was even better because that previous part, I knew for sure that stuff was wrong. After reading half the paper and complementing my research and two pages of citations, Ian was a little unclear on some of my points, even though I pointed them out to him. He gave me some really good ideas on how to make my points stronger, how to leave one part and go onto the next part stronger. Like making a big entrance everytime someone comes in the door. That was my analogy not his.

We worked on transitions and where I needed more of them. I told him that this was my suckiest part and he disagreed and said that this was the time to work on this part. He said writing is a process and I am still in the process of creating the research paper. (Really without the consultation I was ready to just send it in!) I have put in lots of time on this project, sometimes with tears, sometimes with bursts of tantrums-my husband will celebrate for sure when English 111 is over- and mostly with a lack of sleep.

The last part. Ian suggested that I change up the introduction and gave me reasons why which I will not say here in my blog. It sounded reasonable to me. I will try it.....tomorrow! Rewriting, fine tuning, and editing will make tomorrow a busy day and a great day to end chapter 14.

For any writing assignment due, before it is due, go see Ian or some other unbusy English person expert at UAF on the 8th floor of the Gruening Building for some advice. They are really helpful and nice even when you put yourself down.

Now go eat some ice cream! I know that ice cream has nothing to do with the blog and neither does the fact that all those stairs that I hiked didn't help get me to 10,000 steps on Tuesday.

Summarizing Reading

I feel like a pretty lame summarizer. I am a plain to the point type of person that probably writes in that manner, I don't like to write if there is not a direct compensation in some way personally, and I think I sometimes miss the point totally and can interpret things really wrong at times.

If I were to get paid to do this I would need to really figure out how to increase my skills greatly. I read quite a bit therefore I know what good writing is and therefore I don't think that I am a creative enough writer to make it really interesting, even while summarizing. I can give a basic overview if that is interesting enough, just giving the main points. Sounds easy enough yet I know that I am not a writer, I don't have things floating in my head that are clever and that need to be written down. I must wonder though, how did Virginia Wolf get so clever at writing?

I do understand that effective communication is necessary in life, business and even in Girl Scout meetings with eight preteens in attendance. To put it bluntly, the business of writing is critically important especially in many professional fields. Therefore, if it helps my sales in a business, or my career as a nurse, or a researcher, then I will painstakingly do my best. One thing that comes a bit easier to me is creating simple ads and flyers. Sometimes I can write out things to help out my friends, editing, or even help overcome a software issue. Helping a friend is compensation, doing something nice for someone else. It doesn't mean that I am good at it, just because someone wanted my advice or needed my help. I am sure most people in the world better at writing than me; many of them still in grade school!

It is sometimes like a bad joke that my Cuban/German American friend tells me. It takes me a week to get the punch line if I ever get it at all, not sure if it is his accent or the meaning of the joke. Or like the time I tried to help my daughter in interpret a poem in high school. I told her exactly what I thought about the poem after studying it for half an hour. I thought it was totally obscene, morbid and immodest. Turned out she googled the poem got some others advice, and interpreted it herself quite well. She rejected everything I had to say and got a good grade. It turned out that I was totally off base and nowhere near the enigmatic meaning of the dark poem. My impression was very far wrong and I went further by making it political. I realize I do this, like when I sing the wrong words to songs on the radio. It's the way I hear it though. I misunderstand things all the time, that is why summarizing can be difficult for me.

So anyway, when I have to summarize something, especially something that will hopefully get me and "A" in a class, it really helps me to understand what I read better even though I hate doing it. I don't write creatively, especially if there is not much in it for me, I am blunt, and hopefully I don't get the content all wrong when I am summarizing. However, if I summarize by writing, I usually get the content less wrong, I helps me read better. Let me summarize, I hate to write but I do what I have to; it makes me better.

August Post

Where did August go? August is the time that the garden harvest comes in and all Summer activities cease. August is time to ready for hunting season, make room for visitors, and get the kids off to school.

My plans didn't go as expected at all. First of all, only one summer class finished on time. Finishing THAT class took away an entire week of my life in the hottest nicest weather we have had all year. Add to it over 20 squash and zuchini's ripening everyday from my garden. I am like my grandmother, I can't let anything go to waste.

After the class was over and I put off my English class for a few weeks I began to give away squash and find canning recipes. Then I got called in to work for a week and go to court for a son that ended up in jail. I have a crazy life. Wearing my pedometer, I learned that every day that I went to work I walked over 16 miles with over half of that pushing heavy equipment.

Another week goes by and I can't remember if I still have kids and who is diapering them while I can/pickle/preserve 54 jars of three types of zuchini/squash relish and ferment 3 gallons of vegetable sauerkraut. The freezer fills as the days roll by and my special hunt for cow moose begins.

My husband feels that it is his honorable duty to scout and guide me to the perfect cow moose everyday after work for hours and hours AND on the weekends til I just want to cry. I day or two here and there is fine, but EVERY DAY!! I yearn to pick all the lowbush berries that we pass on our tromps through the woods while I look alert and aware of any movements with floppy ears. I point out signs in the wet tundra of split hoof prints. I also fill my water bottle with the ripened cranberries to take home for a chocolate zuchini cranberry loaf.

Company comes just as the frost arrives. Thanks goodness my squash were nipped first because I can't eat any more yellow squash and eggs on tortillas for breakfast! My garden is nearly finished except for the potatoes and cauliflower. I still have pumpkins that I baby every single day, I cover them up at night and uncover and water them in the day. I go outside before bedtime and just look at them, willing them to live and grow for a few more days while my cucumbers and tomatos grow in the warmth of the greenhouse.

Two nights ago I completed my first kill; moose season is over for me, harvest is near complete, one class is over, my pay check is in the mail,the kids have transitioned into school, the hunters are fed, the freezer and pantry is full...where did August go?

If I could just finish English by the time this extension is up I would be able to relax for a second....and then start all over again!

Why AM I Feeling Threatened By This Research Paper?

Actually I am not feeling threatened. I don't have time to be threatened. Every two or so days something major happens to me to pause my studies, so that I don't even think about it. Like losing the diaper bag on a trip and losing all the 2 years old clothes, or having my daughter get proposed to and now I am in the middle of planning the entire wedding because she is off at school, or how about 2 nights ago when my son was cutting metal BAREFOOT with a power tool with a spinning disc called a grinder? Instead of studying planned a 5 hour block in order to do so, I took my son to the ER to sew up the 3 lacerations on the top of his foot. I guess I just wish I had the time to get threatened.

I like the fact that the instructor has drawn this out over seven lessons. That is amazing. Usually you just get, "due by such and such date" and I start really freaking out 1.5 weeks before by not sleeping, drinking too much coffee, screaming at my kids, like they even know what a research paper is. However, they will probably be so shell shocked by my previous attempts at research papers that when they hear the term "Research Paper" in one of their own college classes, they will probably run off to Indonesia as a missionary and never return to the western world. I would like to see my grandkids someday so therefore I refuse to feel threatened, it is not allowed. Only one part is due at a time, I am so very pleased with that; I'm good. I hope this was a good enough explanation because I am late for church!

What Do I Need Outside Help With?

I am sure that I would need help with everything because writing is so difficult for me. I am terribly slow at research. I cannot seem to find much of exactly what I am looking for. I seem to hit road blocks along the way that stops me from accessing the information that I find. I try to search the right databases but once I get there I certainly don't find much. I think the content of what my paper is about is difficult to research because alternative methods are not really scientifically studied unless the therapy is in a supplement form which the FDA has an interest to find out if the product is safe. Other treatments may work miracles for many people, however, they do so well with a majority of the people that utilize them yet are not regulated by the government. Therefore, most of the time they go over looked. It may just be that science is uninterested in studying the effects of time tested therapies. Research is harder to find on alternate therapies. Mostly what a person finds is millions of testimonials, which can be biased. When dealing with health and nutrition research studies in my personal opinion are more difficult to come by instead of drugs that have numerous studies before they are released to the public.

What Else Do I Still Need To Do?

So much really needs to be done on this research paper. I have barely scratched the surface actually. I have my draft to begin, more research to do to fill in the blanks, draft more, and then revise for the final paper. I can see how creating a working bibliography with annotations is very helpful. The last research paper I did for Psychology had me in tears because I had absolutely no method, no rhyme or reason to my end product. Each step I am doing is still painful yet ordered and organized. With notes summarizing each work, I will quickly be able to find information instead of running around in circles, wasting time looking from the same source again.