"It Ain't About the Record"
By John Branch
April 14, 2012
"It Ain't About the Record" Article
Essay question: What was the purpose of this article and why was it important?
The article, "It Ain't About the Record" by John Branch is important because it talks about a troubled girls basketball team of survivors. When reading the article, you see all the troubles that these teenagers go through and how rough their lives are. The main goal that Judge Larry Logan of Carroll County Juvenile Court tries to get through to them is "if you get knocked down, get back up."
There are many problems with the nine girls on the Lady Jaguars. Many of them don't live with both of their parent's and there is also a huge drug use problem. One of the players even smokes marijuana with their mother and father. Some of the players have even lived in houses with no water, heat, or electricity and only a few of their parents have steady jobs. Some of the girls even have disorders like ADD, bipolar, and/or depression. Many of these troubles have caused these teenagers to be reckless and carefree about their actions.
With the bad influence of their parent's, their actions affect their children a lot. One example of bad influence from one of the player's family, Destiny, is that her mother "recently gave birth to her fourth child from the three men she had married, at least one whom beat Destiny." This example of bad parenting is why Judge Larry Logan wants to make the nine basketball players survivors. He wants them to thrive in life and not have this influence rub off on the teenagers. These bad influences lead to wrong choices in life; many choices that they will soon regret when they grow up.
From this article I learned that sometimes the biggest obstacles in the road are what make you stronger as a human being. These tricky situations that knock you down allow you to get back up and try harder. Like many of the players, Destiny has gone through many troubles and she has come out a survivor from the things she experienced. The troubled basketball girls are able to build themselves up and prepare themselves for more troubles to come so that they can survive through the difficulties in life.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Yikes. Don't Plagiarize!
What did the student do wrong? What could he/she have done to include the source correctly?
The student plagiarized and used somebody's piece of work as their work. All they did was copy and pasted the work of the author without having any acknowledgement that it was somebody's work. The student literally copied the work word for word, which is how you know that they copy and pasted their work. They could have included the source correctly by doing the block quotation thing or just putting the text in quotations. They also could have just paraphrased the text in their own words.
Write a sentence sing the original source correctly; use a quotation or paraphrase. Also, make sure to cite correctly.
"There is a peaceful essence flowing from the structures. Perhaps the cool dark colors and the fiery windows spark memories of our own warm childhood years filled with imagination of what exists in the night and dark starry skies. The center point of the town is the tall steeple of the church, reigning largely over the smaller buildings. This steeple casts down a sense of stability onto the town, and also creates a sense of size and seclusion.To the left of the painting there is a massive dark structure that develops an even greater sense of size and isolation." (A Breif Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings, unknown author). If the student cited the source like this, they would've gotten full credit.
What are at least three ways to avoid plagiarizing?
1. Paraphrasing the information in your own words.
2. Putting the text away so that you aren't tempted to copy the text word for word.
3. Including quotations and correct citation when you are going to copy something word for word.
The student plagiarized and used somebody's piece of work as their work. All they did was copy and pasted the work of the author without having any acknowledgement that it was somebody's work. The student literally copied the work word for word, which is how you know that they copy and pasted their work. They could have included the source correctly by doing the block quotation thing or just putting the text in quotations. They also could have just paraphrased the text in their own words.
Write a sentence sing the original source correctly; use a quotation or paraphrase. Also, make sure to cite correctly.
"There is a peaceful essence flowing from the structures. Perhaps the cool dark colors and the fiery windows spark memories of our own warm childhood years filled with imagination of what exists in the night and dark starry skies. The center point of the town is the tall steeple of the church, reigning largely over the smaller buildings. This steeple casts down a sense of stability onto the town, and also creates a sense of size and seclusion.To the left of the painting there is a massive dark structure that develops an even greater sense of size and isolation." (A Breif Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings, unknown author). If the student cited the source like this, they would've gotten full credit.
What are at least three ways to avoid plagiarizing?
1. Paraphrasing the information in your own words.
2. Putting the text away so that you aren't tempted to copy the text word for word.
3. Including quotations and correct citation when you are going to copy something word for word.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Two Student Blog Entries
Two of the blog entries that I enjoyed reading were Joyce's blog post on The Hunger Games and Eliza's blog entry on Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Both entries captured a good jist of what both books were about. Joyce and Eliza both allowed themselves to connect with their readers and the books as well. All in all, both entries were very well written and easy to comprehend.
Two of the things that I liked about Joyce's post is how she provides her inner thoughts and how she feels about two of the main characters in the book. Joyce also did a great job on keeping things concise and understandable. Since I've read The Hunger Games myself, I found it fairly easy to connect to her thoughts on Peeta and Gale. I like how her descriptions on both Gale and Peeta are so simple, but the simplicity isn't boring. If anything, the simplicity of her thoughts allows her readers to understand her thoughts. All in all, she did a great job elaborating on her thoughts and keeping things concise.
On the other hand, Eliza has done many things that I liked as well. She has made her blog post easy to connect with and the format of her response was well organized. Her post was easy to connect with because in her concluding paragraph she added in questions like "But what do you say, reader? Do you think it is possible to weigh misfortune?" This makes the readers think. Her introduction was written in a way where it made you think as well. The formatting of Eliza's response is well organized because she does a great job on having four strong body paragraphs. The thing that I liked most about her body paragraphs is how she did this whole compare and contrast thing between Ron and Harry Potter. It reminds me of a venn diagram, which is some what relevant.
Joyce and Eliza have both inspired me to change up the way I write. Their responses have allowed me to see what I can improve on to become a better book blogger. One thing that I will try to improve on is having concise paragraphs. Sometimes I feel like I have the urge to write more even when it is unnecessary, so that is one of the many things that I can improve on. Another thing that I can improve on is having my responses be more connectable to my audience. Sometimes I don't express my thoughts and it feels like my response to lacking an interesting factor.
Their posts can be found here:
Eliza's reading response
Joyce's reading response
Two of the things that I liked about Joyce's post is how she provides her inner thoughts and how she feels about two of the main characters in the book. Joyce also did a great job on keeping things concise and understandable. Since I've read The Hunger Games myself, I found it fairly easy to connect to her thoughts on Peeta and Gale. I like how her descriptions on both Gale and Peeta are so simple, but the simplicity isn't boring. If anything, the simplicity of her thoughts allows her readers to understand her thoughts. All in all, she did a great job elaborating on her thoughts and keeping things concise.
On the other hand, Eliza has done many things that I liked as well. She has made her blog post easy to connect with and the format of her response was well organized. Her post was easy to connect with because in her concluding paragraph she added in questions like "But what do you say, reader? Do you think it is possible to weigh misfortune?" This makes the readers think. Her introduction was written in a way where it made you think as well. The formatting of Eliza's response is well organized because she does a great job on having four strong body paragraphs. The thing that I liked most about her body paragraphs is how she did this whole compare and contrast thing between Ron and Harry Potter. It reminds me of a venn diagram, which is some what relevant.
Joyce and Eliza have both inspired me to change up the way I write. Their responses have allowed me to see what I can improve on to become a better book blogger. One thing that I will try to improve on is having concise paragraphs. Sometimes I feel like I have the urge to write more even when it is unnecessary, so that is one of the many things that I can improve on. Another thing that I can improve on is having my responses be more connectable to my audience. Sometimes I don't express my thoughts and it feels like my response to lacking an interesting factor.
Their posts can be found here:
Eliza's reading response
Joyce's reading response
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