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Blog 8

This semester, I enjoyed all of the projects we did. They all had a unique way to get me thinking about my writing and to dive deeper into the information. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be the research paper. I enjoyed this project the most because I was able to research information on a topic that I was currently involved with. Learning about the tips and tricks to planning a wedding helped me to use those to help plan my sister’s wedding. I also enjoyed this project the most because I was able to use my sister as a source since her experience with a wedding planner was relevant to my topic. Before this class, I wasn’t the biggest fan of writing, but now I can say that I have more of an interest in it because I have gained the knowledge needed to improve my writing.

It is very difficult for me to choose my least favorite project because each one was enjoyable to me. If I had to choose a least favorite project it would be the annotated bibliography. I enjoyed many parts of this project but I chose it as my least favorite because it was the first time I had done an annotated bibliography paper. I had to learn how to explain the sources and how they were useful instead of putting my own thoughts and experiences into the paper. I think this project is perfect how it is and I do not believe that it needs revising.  

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Blog 7

When I was in high school, I was in a group called FFA. FFA was all about agriculture and involved different contests and conventions where we got to put our agricultural skills to the test. FFA was my favorite thing in high school and it’s what I miss most now that I am in college. The knowledge that I gained from being in FFA, and from living on a farm, is something that I will never lose. While I was in high school, I served as the president of the Cisne FFA chapter my senior year. Cisne High School was the name of my school and even though I only had twenty students in my class, Cisne was known statewide because of FFA. Our amazing Ag teacher had been named “Teacher of the Year” during my senior year and every FFA member in the state of Illinois knew who she was. I felt so honored to have an amazing teacher like her.

I always loved going to FFA contests and events. Some of the contests that I was involved with included agronomy, horticulture, livestock, poultry, and the ag issues contest. The ag issues contest was where students from my class worked together to “debate” an agricultural issue. My team and I worked on this from November of my senior year to June after we had graduated. June was the annual Illinois State Convention and my team had qualified for state. We ended up receiving 3rd out of nine teams. I was so excited because I loved every moment of that contest. Now that I am out of high school and do not get to go to these contests anymore, it makes me miss it, but I know that FFA will always hold a special place in my heart.

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Blog Post 6

For my research project, I am concerned about my topic. I was thinking about arguing the ideas of wedding planning and how some people believe it to be an easy task and how other people think it’s the most stressful thing in their life. I’m thinking I might change the topic to argue whether to get a wedding planner or not. I would still use the same information to argue but this topic would be on a broader scale so that I will have enough information to talk about and not repeat myself. I think this would also be a better topic because I could talk to people who hired a wedding planner for their wedding and talk to people who didn’t hire a wedding planner. This will give me better details for my project.

Other than the topic, things are going well with my research project. The sources that I have are reliable and I feel like a have a great amount of information to support my argument. The Prezi mind map that I did the other day for class really helped me to dive deeper into the information in my sources. It helped me to know what topics and subtopics to talk about in each of my sources. It also allowed me to see which sources were in favor of each side of the argument. I feel confident that my research paper will turn out well. I still have to interview my sister since she is a bride and get her views on the argument but other than that I am excited to write this research paper.

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Blog Post 5

Through researching about wedding planning, I have learned a vast amount of information. This information has been so beneficial to me because I not only can use it for my essay, but also take the information and apply it to the wedding that I am helping plan. Before researching about wedding planning, I thought about the basics of how the wedding would be, like where the ceremony would take place and what colors and decorations to use. After researching, I realized how much planning my family and I didn’t even think about, like how the wedding party was going to walk in and what music to play during the reception. I realized that when you plan a wedding, you have to think about every specific detail involved because there’s a lot to think about.

By researching wedding planning, I also learned a lot about researching itself. I learned about what websites were reliable and what information to use from those websites. By researching, I also learned how to compare and contrast my own ideas with the information from the sources. For my research paper, I think I will argue the thought that some people have about wedding planning. Some people think that it is an easy task that should flow smoothly, but some other people think that it is a difficult and stressful task that overwhelms many families. Coming from someone who is actually in the process of planning a wedding, I believe that it is stressful. My family agrees with me as well so they would make great sources for me to use.

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Blog Post 4

Before spring break, I was confident about my annotated bibliography project, but after I found out that our classes would be online for the rest of the semester, I was a little worried. I was somewhat concerned about my project during our COVID-19 break because I still had some questions about the project. I know that the cancellation of classes could not be controlled and was hoping that it wouldn’t be too much of a struggle to write my essay while dealing with all of my other homework. My biggest concern with my project is about how the layout will be. I saw on the sample essay that students put their source and then talked about what information was from that source. Do we put the website name before the information from that website? I am also struggling with the introduction and conclusion. I want to make it interesting and grab the readers attention, yet I don’t want to make it boring by repeating myself.  

I will fix these issues by attending the zoom sessions on Thursdays so that I can ask questions about how my essay is supposed to be set up. I can also fix these issues by looking at examples from former students. Another thing I can do if I am feeling stressed about my essay is to take a break from it. Clearing my mind and coming back to my essay at a later point in time will help me be able to think more clearly about what I want to say.

[jdatteberr]

Blog Post 3

I am currently in the process of helping my sister and my family plan a wedding. Once we found out that my sister was engaged, everyone was excited! We started the planning by deciding what day to have the wedding. This took some time to decide on because everyone is so busy with work. My sister and her fiancé decided to have their wedding on July 25th, 2020. Now that the date was set, we needed to decide on a venue. After looking for a beautiful place to have a wedding and wedding reception, we found one! Since my sister is a southern country girl, it wasn’t a surprise that she wanted her wedding in a barn. She also asked me to be her maid of honor!

Now that we had the venue, we needed the decorations. We contacted a wedding planner from the next town over to help us with ideas for decorations. She was happy to help and gave us great advice for how to have a beautiful wedding. She even gave us the idea that we could have a popcorn bar at the reception for guests to use while the wedding party gets pictures taken. The next step was to find a dress. My sister, mom, and I went to Ella Park Bridal located in Newburgh, Indiana. She found the perfect dress for her big day. We still need to find bridesmaids dresses and send out invitations, but for the most part we have the main components of the wedding planned out. I’m so excited for this wedding and to write the maid of honor speech!

[jdatteberr]

Blog 2

For our second major project, I am thinking about writing about wedding planning. Whether people know it or not, wedding planning requires a lot of writing. When you’re a wedding planner, you need a website that is visually appealing to the eye. To make it appealing, wedding planners need to have a section that talks about them. It needs to say who they are and what their opinions of what weddings should look like are. This helps the couple decide if they want to hire you to plan their wedding. The task of making a website about your business requires unique writing. It has to be truthful so that the couple can trust that you will do what you say.

I am interested in writing about wedding planning because my sister is getting married this summer. My family and I are currently trying to plan the wedding. With schooling and work going on all at the same time, it’s hard to find time to plan a wedding by ourselves. We decided to hire a wedding planner. We heard about her from a family member that said she was good at planning a beautiful wedding. We looked at her website and it showed that her opinions of a beautiful wedding were the same as ours so we hired her. The planning process has been a lot easier since my sister has been able to talk to her about what she wants at her wedding. The wedding planner has taken away the stress of trying to multitask planning a wedding and going to work at the same time.

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My summary-response essay is going well. My paragraphs seem to be flowing so that I’m not jumping from one topic to the next without a transition phrase. I used a personal experience as one of my examples. I related failing to sports because failure is always an option, not only in writing, but also with sports. I feel like a personal experience helps the reader understand the point of the essay and relate it to their lives. I also think that my essay is going well because of my quotes. I think that the quotes that I used help to show that failing is always an option. The peer editing also has helped my essay go well. Now that I know that others understand the information and purpose of my paragraphs, it helps me to know that I have explained the content of my essay well.

Although my essay is going well, I am struggling to find a way to not repeat myself. Some of the quotes I used are similar. I feel like I have the same explanations for my quotes. I struggle with finding the right words to go with my quotes. I don’t want to repeat myself, but I want to relate my words to the quote as much as I can to make it interesting to the reader. I can fix these struggles by finding new quotes and responding to them with different words. I can also combine my similar quotes into the same paragraphs so that I am not repeating myself.