WHAT: This week in my Fresh 100 class, with instructor Legg we discussed academic integrity and all that it enthralls. Usually academic integrity consists of avoiding plagiarism- where you take other people’s bodies of work and claim it as your own. This may be due to poor ethics, a lack of time to successfully do your own work, not understanding citations, not understanding plagiarism, and many other reasons.

SO WHAT: Academic integrity is important to know, and understand, because it has to be used during our academic career. If it wasn’t, then the student would either be suspended, expelled, or put onto academic probation. The punishment only depending on what your schools code of honor states. And a lot of our actions that we would consider fine (ex: consulting a classmate on what their answer was on the homework, even if you may be only double checking your answers), may actually be not okay to carry on. It again, depends on the code of conduct, and the teachers instructions.

NOW WHAT: I plan on following the code of conduct established by our college. And I need to be more careful of bad habits that are considered plagiarism, and therefore not okay to continue. By continuing being academically honest, I, as well as other students will also learn more and better. Though academic integrity is only required through our academic career, the principle of it should be carried on throughout our adult lives.

QUESTION: How many students have been punished over plagiarism, over what they considered to originally deem acceptable?

WORKS CITED:

Harrington, Christine. ”College Expectations: Being a Critical Thinker”. Student Success in College: Doing What Works! Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

WHAT: This week in my English 95 class with Professor Reid, we took note on “Crafting Effective Thesis Statements”.  You first make a claim, which is what you plan to discuss through evaluation, analyzation or arguing. You then provide reasoning to your claim. Essentially the how and why you plan to discuss your claim. Putting your claim and reasoning together should create generally 2-3 sentences, equaling your thesis.

SO WHAT: Before crafting my own thesis I never knew how many common mistakes I do. From being too broad, insecure or obvious. So seeing an outline of what exactly was needed, really helped me, and I hope will continue to help me.

NOW WHAT: I plan on using this formula (claim + reasoning = thesis) on future papers. As well as maybe consulting with common mistakes made while making thesis, to make sure I do not fall back onto previous thesis habits.

QUESTION: Will knowing the formula for an effective thesis help with future papers? Could using this same formula help with a better understanding of notes? If we look at the claim being made, and why it was important.

WHAT: This last Tuesday in my English class, Professor Reid prepared a lecture about author’s intended audience. The name itself is pretty straight forward. It is the exact person or people who are intended to read what is written. When you are writing you can ask the following questions to help you figure out what is and isn’t appropriate to write, and how you should write it.

         1)      Who is my likely audience? (Factors to consider when thinking about this would be: age,                           gender, race, ability, socio-economic background, level of education, ect.)  

         2)      What style of language will my audience expect?  

         3)      What does my audience know (or need to know) about the topic?

         4)      Is my audience likely to be friendly, unfriendly, or neutral?

SO WHAT: This is important when you are reading because figuring out the author’s purpose may allow a deeper understanding of the piece. Whereas when you’re writing it can help you with the setup of any given piece you will encounter, which is something that could be particularly helpful for me because I often struggle the start of a paper.

NOW WHAT: I plan to use these questions to help my understanding while reading. I also plan to use these questions especially while I’m writing to help me for complete, thorough and cohesive writing assignments.

QUESTION: Will using these questions noticeably affect the quality of writing produced?

So, I survived my first week of college! Yes, I know, the point is kind of redundant seeing as I’ve made a new post. And yes, the first week is always the easiest. Yes of course, it is also mostly introduction exercises. But alas, it’s worth mentioning. Especially since I’ve decided that it’s going to be my subject for this week’s blog post. For the classes I attended this week we participated in name games and answering questions about ourselves.  

The dreaded, awful, awkward introduction exercises. The raving anxiety of the night before the first day of school in preparation for this activity was excruciating. But, honestly? It wasn’t that bad… for the first time, I can even say they were HELPFUL. Imagine that! The fresh start program provides a successful format in easing students into getting to know each other without too much pressure.

At the end of the day, even if we only consider the effect of introduction exercises in the most superficial way the outcome is still positive. The acquaintances, friends, advisors, and teachers (which still feels kind of backwards to say or even think) all serve as a basic accountability partners. They will care about absences, tardies, etc., but in a more positive and understanding way. And it’s my pan to utilize this fact to better my attendance.

How will knowing peers affect the classes we attend? Will having friends be a positive or a negative?

So when you add someone who is embarrassingly shy, hates sharing, and knows absolutely nobody in the class you get someone who really appreciates that this week equaled success. Peers, teachers, random strangers, and oddly enough the actually architecture of the campus were incredibly friendly and welcoming.