Mid-Session Check-in Blog

Jacob Stryker

Mid-Session Check-in Blog

7/9/2010

I have enjoyed taking this class, it is going better for me than my Eng 101 online. There are some things that I don’t find necessary, such as using a webcam and making a blog. I don’t see a point to the blog: We turn our assignments in through blackboard anyways, and nobody responds to other people’s blog. That is just my style though, I prefer a more straightforward way of learning. I don’t feel that I need to do these new things, I would rather be told what assignments I need to do and do them.

With that out of the way, I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Tim O’Brien’s and Sean Huze’s work. My plan in life is to go into law and/or politics, and I feel like if more politicians would read things similar to these men’s work they would not be so willing to commit our country and our young men and women to war. I have not found The Handmaid’s Tale to be as interesting. I am still in the beginning though, so it may end up getting better. Overall the reading material has been interesting, and I am glad I had the opportunity to read the works in class, since I probably wouldn’t have ever heard of these writings otherwise.

I feel like the biggest issue with my writing is using correct MLA style all the time. I cannot remember off the top of my head how to put things in the correct format, so normally I have to go back to the examples in the Week 2 Assignments folder. I have tried using a couple different internet sites for MLA citation, but even there I have gotten different answers. It probably confuses me so much because I don’t see MLA citation a whole lot. Sites all over the internet use different ways to mark their sources, and some are similar but slightly different.

If I have any goals for the rest of the semester I would say I’d like to get MLA citation down as well as proofreading my own work. I don’t think there are too many grammatical errors in my writing, but I’m sure there are parts where it could sound better if rewritten in a more engaging way. Overall I just want to end up with a good grade here, while picking up some tools for the rest of my college career.