Fishing Picture

Describe: The photograph shows various things. In the background, there are green trees, river, green scrubs, and green grass. The main focus of the picture is the happy young boy, with a fishing hook that has caught a small fish. The boy wears a blue jeans trouser, with a red t-shirt that has a black stripe and a white circular mark. Fishing involves the hearing of the flow of water, and also the chirping of the birds on the surrounding trees. Fish has a unique smell; however, the surrounding air provides clean and fresh air. Fish has different textures. The tilapia fish is typically rough because of the scales while the lungfish is soft because it does not have scales.
Compare: Fishing makes me as happy as a lark; because I greatly enjoy it, and it enables me to relax after a period of studying or working. Fishing means the world to me because it gives me joy, relaxation, and peace of mind.

Narrate: The fishing scene took place near the ranch of my uncle in Texas. My uncle loved fishing, I regularly accompanied him in his fishing sessions, and thus I developed a love for the activity. The primary participant in the picture is me, and I was aged eight years. My uncle congratulated me for catching the small fish. I was jubilant because I succeeded in catching the little fish.

December 21, 2015 – ENTRY 8: Description and Narration

Write:

The photograph that I have shown illustrates the issue of recreational fishing. The picture is vital to me because it explains the nice experiences that I get when I engage in recreational fishing activities.

During the weekends or holidays, I usually engage in sports fishing in the Texas region of the United States. My Uncle introduced me to recreation fishing because I enjoyed accompanying him in the fishing sessions.
I started fishing when I was eight, and after several years, I still enjoy the fishing sessions. In 2016, I want to register and participate in the national sports fishing competition.

Reflect: The photo does not provide all the information that the audience or viewers require concerning the fishing event. The story narration provides additional information; for example, the place where the fishing event took place. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” because it illustrates various data and information.

December 22, 2015 – ENTRY 9: Comparison and Contrast

Brainstorming: The things that I write on a daily basis are:
Text messages to friends and family members
Emails to employees, clients and managers
Essays on class work and presented to instructors
Facebook posts to communicate with friends and families,
Status updates to communicate with friends and families
Reports for academic and work activities, and offered to professors and work supervisors
Minutes are written to explain outcomes of daily work meetings
Memos are written to employees and managers
Tweets are written to provide information to clients

Organize:

Formal Writing Informal Writing Audience

1 Emails Supervisors, clients and Instructors
2 Essays instructors
3 Facebook posts Friends and relatives
4 Status updates Friend, relatives, and clients
5 Reports Instructors and supervisors
6 Minutes Supervisors and staffs
7 Memos Supervisors and staffs
8 Tweets Clients

Write:

The formal writing style is used when communicating with staffs, supervisors and instructors while informal writing is utilized when talking with friends and relatives. The official writing style is mainly brief and strictly adheres to grammar and formatting rules, while informal writing can be long. Audience interaction changes depending on the writing style. In formal communication the audience must be addressed using proper salutation; however, the audience of informal communication like friends can be addressed in a flexible, relaxed and even joking manner.
Formal and informal communications have differing tones, spelling, punctuation and grammar. Formal writings have a professional tone and good grammar while informal writing has a more relaxed and friendly tone with reduced emphasis on grammar or punctuation.

December 23, 2015 – ENTRY 10: Definition

Define: Before reading the text, I thought that plagiarism refers to paraphrasing an existing work and also providing adequate citations to acknowledge the authors. The understanding does not provide an adequate understanding of the plagiarism concept. This is because it does not show the significance of using a different sentence structure in ensuring proper paraphrasing. One example of changing the sentence structure entails reducing the length of the sentences. To ensure a plagiarism free essay, the writer should read an existing work several times so as to improve understanding of the main ideas. Quotation marks should also be used when words of the author are borrowed.

Reflect: Learning about plagiarism is important for students. It enables the learners to acknowledge the work done by authors through citations. Paraphrasing and then providing citations of sources is one method of preventing plagiarism. Paraphrasing involves restating words and sentences used by an author. Understanding plagiarism ensures generation of professional essays and reports by the learners. This is because new or original knowledge is separated from existing knowledge that is shown through citations and references.

December 24, 2015 – ENTRY 11: Cause and Effect

Brainstorm: The causes that influenced my return to school are:
The desire to improve my career.
Professional counseling by a professor on the importance of furthering education.

The desire to pursue postgraduate studies at an Ivy League university.
Pressure from my friends and families.

Availability of adequate financial resources to cater for tuition costs.
The short-term effect of returning to school includes better time management because I have to balance properly work and class time. The longer effect includes the acquisition of better academic qualifications that will be importance in developing my career and also proceeding with post graduate studies.

Organize: The organizer that I have used is graphic organizer that illustrates essay format that has a title, introduction, claim, body, and claim. Graphic organizer creates orderliness when presenting formal academic essays and reports.

December 25, 2015 – ENTRY 12: Evaluation

The patterns of development applied to the entries are an acceptable paraphrase. Paraphrase involves proper rewording of author’s words and also changing the original sentence structure. The patterns of development also show the structure of the essay that must have title, introduction, claim, body and conclusion.

Journal 3

December 26, 2015 – ENTRY 13: Evaluating Sources

Sources are appropriately used in an essay when expert opinion is required concerning a given issue. Expert opinion can be provided by authors of scientific articles. Sources are also used to compare and contrast different perspectives of the authors, so as to understanding the clear understanding of the topic.

Differentiating facts, opinion, and bias from several sources is very important in essay writing. Each source provides a unique perspective on the facts, opinions, and bias. The different perspective can be combined to provide an adequate explanation of a given research issue.
December 27, 2015 – ENTRY 14: Organizing Information

Review:

Information is organized properly through various approaches. These approaches include note taking and writing paraphrases. Note taking involves recording ideas from a given sources, in summary, form or through writing brief paraphrase. Writing Paraphrases involves restating the ideas of an author.

Paraphrasing is the most important and useful approach to organizing information. This is because it ensure restating of the opinions and concepts illustrated by several authors.

Reflect:

Plagiarism involves academic dishonesty, and punishment can include expulsion from the learning institution. Plagiarism occurs when ideas and concepts of a given author are directly used without quotations and citations. Plagiarism is also considered when facts provided by an author are not adequately referenced. Citation of information is necessary when expert opinion by an author is shown. Information that has been restated with different patterns and vocabulary should not be cited. The meaning of the text should; however, be maintained.

December 28, 2015 – ENTRY 15: Using Sources Responsibly
Sources are used properly through direct quotation, summary or paraphrase. Direct quotation involves using the direct words of an author. It should be cited using page numbers. Summary included illustrating a brief overview of a given text. Summary works should be adequately cited and referenced. Paraphrase involves restating the meaning of the text using different words and sentence structure. Paraphrased works should also be cited.

December 28, 2015 – ENTRY 16: Planning Argument

Benefits of Alternative Energy

Claim

Alternative energy involves energy sources apart from fossil fuel. Alternative power sources like wind or solar are popular because they do not have adverse effects associated with fossil energy like global warming. The aim of the research is to show the advantages of alternative energy.
Reasons
Alternative energy has an unlimited supply. The wind and solar energy are abundant. Because of the abundant supply, alternative energy is cheaper than the fossil energy. Alternative energy protects the natural environment, because of minimal emission of carbon dioxide.

Claim Support

In 2001, California spent $1.3 billion in alternative energy. This is lower than $2 billion that was used the previous year in facilitating fossil fuel.
Alternative energy appeals to the environmental conservation values because of low carbon dioxide emissions. The energy also appeals to the constant power supply needs of the society.

December 29, 2015 – ENTRY 17: Recognizing Opposition

Opposing perspective is recognized through three approaches. These approaches are; transition words, criticisms, and different arguments. Transitions words like “however” are used in illustrating a different opinion. Several arguments on a given issues show opposing ideas or perspectives. Various arguments presented by various authors show differences in opinion. Opposition in the essay is important because it shows various arguments on a given issue.

Reflect: The graphic organizers are the title, introduction, claim, body, and conclusion. Topic shows the subjected under study. The introduction provides background information. The claim is the thesis, and it illustrates the purpose of the essay. The body provides the reasons and evidence of the essay. Conclusion restates the claim. The opposing viewpoints strengthen the argument of Hamilton because it clearly criticizes the argument.

December 29, 2015 – ENTRY 18: Course Reflection

Reflect:

I understand that I am a learner. I, therefore, accept training on how to improve my writing skills especially in the areas of paraphrasing and citations.

My writing abilities have improved because of the course. I know understand how to cite correctly and reference sources in the essays that I write.

The skill that I require more practice in notes taking. I still need more information on how to make short notes from electronic sources like emails.

Evaluate:
The goal that I intended to achieve is appropriately using the graphic organizer in essays. I effectively achieved the goal because I understand the parts of the graphic organizer. My focus currently is on improving the paraphrasing skills. This is achieved through properly restating the opinions of the author through different words.
In the future assignments, I will focus on using appropriate essay structure. The essay will be adequately paraphrased, cited and referenced.