We’ve all been taught how to research information and find sources since we were in middle school. Most of the time all it takes is a couple searches on Google, and you have all the necessary information to finish your paper. However, since I’ve entered college, I’ve had to put a lot of extra effort into finding sources, articles and information that will meet my teacher’s standards. For my English 101 class, I no longer use Google, but instead I use the WSU Library website, which includes Griffin and WorldCat. I must admit that it is much more difficult to find relevant articles on these sites than Google, but the information you do end up finding is definitely more scholarly and reliable.
Once I am delivered a list of articles that contain the keywords I am looking for, I start scanning through the various summaries, looking for ones that will contain the most unbiased info. When looking through articles, before I decide which ones I want to use, I also make sure I can find the author or organization and figure out where the information is coming from. If the author is someone who I believe would be reliable and educated on the topic at hand (for example, a doctor talking about health problems or a scientist talking about experiments), then print or order the article.
The hardest part in using sources comes when it’s time to successfully put them into an appropriate place of your paper. When I am making a really strong argument, or trying to argue why my opinion is better, is usually where I place a direct quote. I do this because it gives my commentary a little more of a backbone, because it is real, factual evidence. I can’t just argue something for a long time, and then move onto a new point without putting concrete details and quotes along with it, to make it strong and believable.
I think that the way I accumulate sources is efficient and definitely works for me when it comes to writing my papers for English 101. It isn’t very time consuming and the articles I end up finding usually fit right into my paper, and are really big helps. However I do think that there are a couple small things I could use to help me make my method for finding articles a little bit easier and faster. If I knew of other places on the web to look for scholarly, peer reviewed articles besides the library website, I could find more of them, or just a bigger selection. It would also be really helpful to know how to refine my searches a little better when it comes to keywords so I can cut down the time it takes me to find ones I can actually use.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Post #7: Borlaug article & Individual Article
Norman Borlaug Article
The main ideas of this article were the various kinds of conventional technology and biotechnology that we must come up with in order to meet the needs of our quickly growing population. Biotechnology has already made a huge impact on medicine and public health. Now, scientists believe that it could also change the face of our agricultural system, for the better. Not only will biotechnology help raise production levels to feed millions of more people, but it will be helping clean and preserve the environment at the same time. Scientists can inject plants with various substances and chemicals to make the plant do almost anything that they want. Making the plants more sustainable, more productive, more durable, more nutritional and making them stronger against diseases are all aspects of the biotechnology work of plants. However, should farmers be permitted to use all of this technology to inject stuff into the food we eat everyday of our lives? How well do we trust the scientists when they tell us that none of these chemicals are harmful for our bodies? Yes, it is very important we find productive ways to meet the challenges of starvation and famine all across the world, but is it worth harming our own bodies in order to ensure that everyone is fed? This is a choice that society needs to make.
Individual Article: The Omnivors Dilemma, Chapter 17: The Ethics of Eating Animals
I decided that chapter 17 in “The Omnivores Dilemma” would be a very helpful source in writing paper number three. The title of the chapter is “The Ethics of Eating Animals” which primarily is a big part of what I will be discussing in this upcoming essay. Throughout the chapter Pollan discusses various points of views about whether it is or isn’t okay to be killing and eating animals. One of the main sources he uses is a book written by Peter Singer titled “Animal Liberation” which takes the side that even though we are omnivores, we shouldn’t be eating meat. Pollan gives many justifications for both sides of the argument, making it hard to even decide where you stand on the debate. I believe that one of the most helpful and controversial sections of the chapter will be the part in which he relates eating animal to owning slaves, or the oppression of women. Could it be that we are moving towards a society where we will be ashamed of the things we did to animals, just like we found ourselves ashamed after many years of slavery and discrimination? Could society ever reach that point of enlightenment? These are all good questions that are going to help me write a very in depth and meaningful paper.
The main ideas of this article were the various kinds of conventional technology and biotechnology that we must come up with in order to meet the needs of our quickly growing population. Biotechnology has already made a huge impact on medicine and public health. Now, scientists believe that it could also change the face of our agricultural system, for the better. Not only will biotechnology help raise production levels to feed millions of more people, but it will be helping clean and preserve the environment at the same time. Scientists can inject plants with various substances and chemicals to make the plant do almost anything that they want. Making the plants more sustainable, more productive, more durable, more nutritional and making them stronger against diseases are all aspects of the biotechnology work of plants. However, should farmers be permitted to use all of this technology to inject stuff into the food we eat everyday of our lives? How well do we trust the scientists when they tell us that none of these chemicals are harmful for our bodies? Yes, it is very important we find productive ways to meet the challenges of starvation and famine all across the world, but is it worth harming our own bodies in order to ensure that everyone is fed? This is a choice that society needs to make.
Individual Article: The Omnivors Dilemma, Chapter 17: The Ethics of Eating Animals
I decided that chapter 17 in “The Omnivores Dilemma” would be a very helpful source in writing paper number three. The title of the chapter is “The Ethics of Eating Animals” which primarily is a big part of what I will be discussing in this upcoming essay. Throughout the chapter Pollan discusses various points of views about whether it is or isn’t okay to be killing and eating animals. One of the main sources he uses is a book written by Peter Singer titled “Animal Liberation” which takes the side that even though we are omnivores, we shouldn’t be eating meat. Pollan gives many justifications for both sides of the argument, making it hard to even decide where you stand on the debate. I believe that one of the most helpful and controversial sections of the chapter will be the part in which he relates eating animal to owning slaves, or the oppression of women. Could it be that we are moving towards a society where we will be ashamed of the things we did to animals, just like we found ourselves ashamed after many years of slavery and discrimination? Could society ever reach that point of enlightenment? These are all good questions that are going to help me write a very in depth and meaningful paper.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Post #6: Chapter 15
Chapter 15 was a very interesting section that I really enjoyed reading. By this point in the book, Pollan has had a chance to take a deep look into the industrial and pastoral aspect of where our food comes from. He decides that his last endeavor should be to prepare and eat his own food, by hunting and gathering it. I think that this is important for him to do to get the full experience of how easy or hard it would be to catch and prepare one's own food, and decide if it is realistically something that Americans could do on a day to day basis. The three basic components he wanted to include in his meal were plants, animals and fungi.
To be able to forage for his own food, many roadblocks needed to be knocked down in order for him to succeed. These same problems would stand in way of most Americans if they attempted to eat a diet that only consisted of food they picked, killed, or grew themselves. Being able to distinguish between a poisonous and non-poisonous mushroom, being able to shoot and kill an animal, or being able to grow and harvest your own plants, are all difficult aspects of this way of life. Though this might be doable and acceptable to some people throughout the world, it is not physically possible for all of Americans to live this way. There are not nearly enough animals or plants left in the wild for all of us to live on. So even though agriculture has some very negative impacts on humans, animals and the environment, it is what we need to survive at this point in time.
To be able to forage for his own food, many roadblocks needed to be knocked down in order for him to succeed. These same problems would stand in way of most Americans if they attempted to eat a diet that only consisted of food they picked, killed, or grew themselves. Being able to distinguish between a poisonous and non-poisonous mushroom, being able to shoot and kill an animal, or being able to grow and harvest your own plants, are all difficult aspects of this way of life. Though this might be doable and acceptable to some people throughout the world, it is not physically possible for all of Americans to live this way. There are not nearly enough animals or plants left in the wild for all of us to live on. So even though agriculture has some very negative impacts on humans, animals and the environment, it is what we need to survive at this point in time.
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