Free Post-Winter Break

This Winter Break, I traveled a lot. I started off in Baton Rouge, then on the 23, I went up to Hattiesburg with my step family. We stayed there for Christmas. It was really fun. We went to the movies, played cards, and watched slideshows of pictures from the family. We spent Christmas there, and then we left the next morning. From there we went to Bastrop with my mom's family. Bastrop was so much fun. We  ate so much, and we hung out with friends and family.

After my brother and I stayed in Bastrop for a few days, we were picked up by our dad. For my 15th birthday, my dad decided to take me duck hunting in Stuggart, Arkansas. We ended up going on the 29th. Unfortunately, we picked one of the worse days to go. We only killed about 3 birds while hunting for about 5-7 hours. It was still really fun though and I was glad we went. After that we went to El Dorado. We spent the night with our cousin, then we went to our lake camp. At the camp, we celebrated my birthday and New Years. We had to eventually head home on January 2nd, but that break was one of the best breaks, I have had in a while.

Research Update

My research topic is the French Resistance in World War 2. This was a secret group of people fighting Germans and helping the Allied Forces. Because they were so secret, there were not many records. This makes it hard when I am trying to find sources. I have found a few sources that supply useful information, but then the rest aren't as good. It has been hard finding lots of information from multiple sources. 

The hardest pat for me so far has been finding sources particularly primary. For all of my primary, I have pictures. The easiest thing so far has been the annotated bibliographies. I got must of them done early so I could relax close to the deadline. That helped a lot. I think the hardest thing will be the notecards because I have trouble finding lots of information from my sources. I think this will make it hard when I make the notecards especially with all of the different categories. 

Comments Q2 W8

Lane-Writing Center
Sutter-Student Prompt

Writing Center Reflection

     My writing center visit was very helpful. Though I didn't go to the writing center during school, I had a writing fellow help me after school one day. The writing fellow helped me with many things. One thing we worked on was making sure that I don't give too much information in the introduction. Another thing was to make sure that before I turned in my paper that I would make sure format and quotations were all correct. We finally talked about making sure that I sold my argument instead of the book. He told me that my job was to make that argument in my thesis instead of telling the book.
     There are still some things I think that I need to work on about my paper, though. I still need to work on all of the above and my transitions and intro paragraph. My writing fellow and I also talked about making sure that my transitions tied the previous and next paragraph together with my thesis. There are a few spots still where my transitions aren't good enough because I only tied in in two of the things together. I still need to work on some quotation embeddings, but I think a major concern is that I need to have more "how it supports my thesis" and less context in my introduction in some places. I have made some good progress, but there are still some things I plan to fix. This trip to the writing center was very helpful to me, and I plan to get help from them again in the future.

Comments Q2 W7

Sutter- Free Post
Max- Free Post-Exams

Free Post

     Last Friday, as most people know, there was a jazz performance by the Freshman Band. We were performing during lunch out on the deck. If you didn't know already, I was one of the two trumpet players standing in the back. Before this performance, I was so nervous because I have never liked performing in front of people. It made me more nervous because I kept messing up in practice that morning. We also added a new piece which was probably the hardest of them all.

     Since the performance was during lunch, we got to leave class early and because of this we got to eat fish without waiting in line at all. After we had eaten, we got our instruments and warmed-up. We were all out in our positions and ready to play, but there still weren't many people outside. I was still so nervous, but when it started, I was so happy, and it was so much fun. I might have messed up a few times, but it was so cool to have all of these people cheering us on when we were doing something we like to do. So thank you to all who came out, and thank you for my fellow band members for making this so much fun.

Literary Analysis Process

     So far I am still working on putting my outline into a draft. The hardest part about this so far is making sure everything fits in correctly. It is also hard to make a difference sometimes in my "looking closely" and my "How it supports my thesis" sections. I still need to do a better job at making each one of those clearer. I am also worried about having to much context in my introduction.

     When I needed help, I wasn't afraid to ask Dr. D or a writing fellow who could help me with one little problem. Also, the writing center was a really big help. They helped me make sure I had all the requirements, and they helped me with some pointers to use when finishing writing. I am struggling a lot with the amount of information I have especially when trying to have the same length of "looking closely" as "How it Supports my Thesis" sections. Hopefully, this all ends well.