Class summary

In the first day of class, I learnt how to do reseach. I felt interested into this. Doing research sounds great to me. Since I've learnt how to do research, I believe I read effectively and gain more knowledge. And this skill can help me along my long-time study. I started reading more about technologies as my class focuses on them. I had some good sources of information which Professor recommended such as Scholar Google, Esco Host and electronic magazines.

The next day, we studied Run-ons, sentence structures and punctuation like comma, period, colon and semi colon. I'm not good at run-on so I thought the lesson was helpful. I could use punctuation to correct run-on sentences. At the end of the class, we were assigned the first assignment: Reseach summary.

I like the Basic essay format lesson. In that section, I've known how to write an essay clearly and precisely. We've figured out how to write an effective thesis statement, how to organize paragraphs. Thanks to a good preparation, I could write the 2 second assignment which was an essay better. I'm going to apply this format to write more essays. The second assignment was a new challenge to me for I'd never written it: Literature review which I had to do some reseach, then write all sides, all voices in the conversation of this topic.

For me, the most important format I've learnt is MLA. MLA is abbreviation of "Modern Language Association of America". Students in social majors like humanity or English usually use it to write. I've become skillful with intent citations and Works Cited pages. No more fear, no more confusing. I also know how to make a citation by myself. I don't use websites which make citations automatically, so that I don't have to rely on these websites.

Simplifying was important and interesting. I found out my writings were wordy and lengthy. Fortunately, there are ways to improve it: Changing passive voice to active voice, avoid using "there is" and so on. We did some exercises in class and read more about it at home. Those posts form professors are informative.

We talked about tethering which means people's attachments to electronic devices. We discussed the excerpt from "Always on/Always-on-you: The tethered self". We also proposed to try a week without screen media.

The last assignment was Argumentation. I found an essay format sample in which I could write a counterpart, and then some reasons to support my stance.

In sum, in this class I've learnt how to do a research, how to write a Literature review and an argumentation.