Week 6 Blog Post

Goals

One of my goals for this week was to look back through the notes and annotations in White Fang and The Call of the Wild.  My second goal was to work on my works cited and improve it for the revision. I spent the entire break on the East Coast touring colleges and I was able to use the long plane rides as well as the car rides to work on these goals. I was able to look through all my annotations and notice parts of the book that I had missed originally. I was not able to work on my works cited as much because I did not have my corrected works cited with me (my fault) but I did everything I could without it. My goals for the next week are to begin my Chapter One on Monday, work on it during every class time and after school and have Chapter One in good condition by Friday. 

Activities

Because we did not have school this week, the activities I completed this week were not as structured or as rigorous as a normal week of activities. One activity was looking through my book of The Call of the Wild again on the plane on the way to New York City. A repeated activity was working on my works cited a couple of the evenings in the hotels we stayed in. A final activity was looking through White Fang on my way back to Seattle. 

Problems

The main problem I had this week was that I never collected my corrected works cited from the substitute teacher on Thursday, so it made editing my works cited more difficult. This was my fault, though, because I was preoccupied on Thursday looking for my backpack. I have made arrangements with Sarah to pick up my corrected works cited so I can add those corrections into it as well. 

Reflection

This week's reflection is shorter because it was less of a productive or active week than the others, considering it was Mid-Winter Break. This week was a good week of recovery and relaxation before beginning the hardest part of the entire research paper process: actually writing the thing.

Week 5 Blog Post

Goals

My goals for this week were to finalize my works cited while also initiating the outline and structure of my essay. I was able to finalize most of my works cited, turning it in timely. I was able to edit some of my works cited but not all of it, causing me to not have a fully correct works cited. Once Sarah returns my Works Cited, I will immediately begin working on the edits. My goals for this week are to finish my outline and begin thinking more about the essay and possibly begin writing. On Monday, I plan on working completely on my outline because it is due on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I plan on turning in my outline and begin working on my first chapter. On Thursday, I plan on working more on my first chapter and assessing what I plan to do over the break. 

Activities

This week was mostly spent in class work periods. Usually the class begins with Sarah giving us helpful information about the assignments we are working on and then we spend the rest of the class working and talking to Sarah for additional help. I spent the work periods this week mostly formulating my outline and the ideas I want to center my paper around. 

Problems

This was a huge homework week for all my classes along with the fact that I had the ACT on Saturday, meaning I had to study the ACT extensively in addition to my schoolwork. This resulted in my revised works cited not being completely corrected and the progress of my outline being delayed. I tried my best this week and I used a long amount of today for my outline and made major progress on it. 

Reflection

This week was not as successful as others before it because of all the stress I was under but I believe that I tried my hardest and I made sure today to make up for all the work I had fallen behind on. I will set a long-term goal from now on to put the Research Paper before my other homework because of the huge impact it has on my final grades and how much work is required to make it good. 

Week 4 Blog Post

Goals

This week, I planned to finalize my notecards and my works cited and begin working on the general outline of my research paper. I was able to finalize most of my notecards, but I still want to look into my printed book, From Naturalism to Nature more for more information. As for my works cited, I still have a couple of small errors to fix but the big problems have been fixed. As for my outline, I have been working on it all weekend and I think that I have settled on some good ideas. My goals for this week are to work on my outline and finish everything else that I need to. Monday, I will work out all the problems in my works cited and then work on my outline. On Tuesday, I will begin collecting the quotes I will use. And on Thursday and Friday, I will continue to compile quotes until I finish

Activities

During this week, I worked on my works cited and my notecards in and out of class. I was able to fulfill the requirements for the notecards and I fixed the biggest problem in my bibliography, one of the Facts on File articles. This week was a successful and efficient week. 

Problems

I did not have any large problems this week but I did have a couple small ones. First, two of my sources did not have individual page numbers even though they said which pages of the books the articles were taken from. I have decided that I am going to talk to Sarah tomorrow and figure that out so I can properly use my notecards. Another problem this week was that my works cited was not shared with Sarah so I almost lost a lot of points. Thankfully, Harrison showed me how to share the works cited. Lastly and the most problematic: the Hawks lost. :(

Reflection

This week was a solid amount of progress and growth for my paper. With my work on my sources and my notecards completed, I can now completely focus on the structure and ideas of my research paper. 

MVP of the Week

Harrison Mickle for showing me how to share my works cited with Sarah.