blog#26

Traditionally, the way most people think of Thanksgiving, they see the holiday as either a religious day where they give thanks to God for their plenty, as a day to see family and friends and feast with them, simply as 'Turkey Day' or as a day to watch football... or perhaps all of the above. However, in addition to these things, ever since I was a young kid in school learning about the tradition and history of Thanksgiving I have also always thought of it as a day that represents the understanding and tolerance of other cultures, a day where people of widely differing beliefs could come together in peace and in celebration of their friendship and hard work together throughout the year. Legend has it that the Pilgrims who held the first Thanksgiving did so right alongside with the Native Americans of the area. You are probably well aware of the first Thanksgiving and how the Pilgrims and the Indians go together and gave thanks for the bountiful harvest. That was in 1621. However, the first Thanksgiving did not lead to a traditional holiday and certainly not to a national one since the nation didn’t exactly exist. It did play a role, however, in what would come. Eventually Thanksgiving began being celebrated more and more as the country grew and people wanted to give thanks. A real American Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the entire country just after the Revolutionary War. But still, it was not a national holiday. Then, when Abraham Lincoln was in office he declared the last Thursday of November Thanksgiving Day in 1863. That is when it finally became a national holiday. Every president since Lincoln has also declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. Today, we all look forward to Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season. We celebrate friends, family, and prosperity and thank God for His blessings. Many families have different takes and traditions for Thanksgiving, but the overall theme is a family meal and giving thanks for all of life’s blessings. I am thankful for everything that I have in my life. I think that everyone has something or someone to be thankful for. At first I did not really understand the meaning of thanksgiving until I researched and found information about it. In my opinion everyone has a different story of how thanksgiving originally started I do know it involved the pilgrims and natives and now our generation just helps it continue to let it grow I am thankful that it even became a holiday.

blog#27

For our next essay it is an Annotated Bibliography assignment. What this basically is about an article (each of us were given two) and just summarizing it up and our evaluation based on the articles that were given. With a partner we had to create a draft plan. First my partner and I were given an article read it and summarizing it up. We did not get done but we were both able to get to the point of the article. Each of us was also given a paper that discussed about the guidelines and based upon the Annotated Bibliography essay. To me the assignment that we had to do was pretty hard only because I have never really done an essay such as this one before. I think my partner and I both had a little trouble with it. With the help of our instructor the assignment turned out to be understanding in different ways. Everything did happen pretty quickly. First we read the guidelines will help each of us only because it is so different from any other essay. Then the assignment we had to do. I got it but did not really understand that will I will manage to in some way.

blog#27

For our next essay it is an Annotated Bibliography assignment. What this basically is about an article (each of us were given two) and just summarizing it up and our evaluation based on the articles that were given. With a partner we had to create a draft plan. First my partner and I were given an article read it and summarizing it up. We did not get done but we were both able to get to the point of the article. Each of us was also given a paper that discussed about the guidelines and based upon the Annotated Bibliography essay. To me the assignment that we had to do was pretty hard only because I have never really done an essay such as this one before. I think my partner and I both had a little trouble with it. With the help of our instructor the assignment turned out to be understanding in different ways. Everything did happen pretty quickly. First we read the guidelines will help each of us only because it is so different from any other essay. Then the assignment we had to do. I got it but did not really understand that will I will manage to in some way.

blog#25

Today our instructor was not in class. I did do the assignment which was bringing the complete draft of the essay. I think I did screw it up though only because of the fact I did not bother reading it before turning it in. I was just concentrating on turning in the draft on time based upon the fact that I turn everything in late. I would not know how to describe the days experience only because we did not have class. I will talk about my draft and how I think I messed up on it and what I should have done. The part I know I did not do right was the body part. This is where it contains and discusses about both websites only in a certain order. I know I did not really put anything in order the way it was supposed to go and that is my fault. I would worry about it but not so much because I think to me it turned out to be ok. Not the way I wanted but I guess I will see what happens when I receive my grade. In my opinion it would have been more helpful to have one more day to see how the papers sound before turning them in.

blog #24

My draft was finally complete and now I had to get feedback on it from my classmates in the writing center. What we did was read aloud each of our drafts. Some were partially completed but just had to fix the mistakes that were on the draft. I was part of a three member group myself included and sat in a circle. The first person to go within my group had a nice clean draft but had to improve on giving full sentences. I did not really want to but I had to be critical it is not to be mean but it helps each of us make our essay better. The next person did not really have that many mistakes to me everything sounded ok. Last was my paper. I read it aloud it and it happened to loose both my team members concentration based upon the fact they said it seemed so long. I did however make mistakes. My problem was that I kept using first persons. So I received the feedback which in my opinion improved my draft. I did go to the writing center before doing this assignment. I went in with nothing just what was inside of my head. I got down everything and received my tutor’s feedback as well. We both figured out the differences on both of the websites. My thesis was created and I figured out a way on how to get started. The only thing I did not like was that when we discussed my draft I got two different types of feedback. One was good and one was sort of bad. The bad feedback was from my class. My sentences were to long and the other following reason I listed before. The good feedback was from my tutor of course I would think it would be good only because in my opinion tutors say what they think sounds good. Which it does in some ways but I was still confused. Even though I had my tutor it was sort of a bad vibe only because I knew she kind of made faces because I was more of a myspace fan than facebook. The way I think of the feedback helped not only me but each of our drafts. If I would not have gotten the feedback I know my essay would have been screwed up but thanks to the writing center and my fellow students it would not be so messed up.

blog #23

The thesis and draft plan for my essay had to be created. What the thesis is basically the lat sentence of the introduction saying what the essay is going to be about. The thesis that I had to create was on myspace and facebook two social networking websites. This time I did not have that much trouble creating my thesis because I had done it before and knew what needed to be suspected. My tutor helped me with the thesis I had already wrote it down and got her opinion on it which turned out pretty good on my part. The draft plan of my essay was not the way I expected it. I got to the point but did not have a way of making it look like the way I wanted it to. There were mistakes that I had made but I was able to see them along with my group member’s help. I did what I had to for the sake of my essay. I got threw and did my draft well at least I created a plan for it. The plan really helped me out a lot so that was the good thing I got out of it.

blog #20

Today’s experience came in handy. The worksheet helped me focus on what and how my essay should be formed. What I did was made two lists. One of myspace and the other of facebook. I had put down the similarities and differences about both of the websites. What this did was give me a way of improving and more reasons of enhancing my paper. At first I did not really know how to get started because I got sort of confused on the assignment. The worksheet itself had a layout of where everything such as the body that contains the three main paragraphs, conclusion, and the introduction. All of this is what should be contained inside of the empty boxes. What my paper needed was a certain way of how it should look like. For instance my essay is based upon both websites and their differences. Both websites should be talked about in the introduction. The three body paragraphs should go in order talking about the differences for instance myspace, facebook, myspace and then the conclusion. I think that this worksheet really helped out a lot even when I had went to the writing center it was very helpful because I knew how to get started.