SOCL 526: Writing in the Social Sciences

I enjoyed the online class and liked it better than I had anticipated. It seemed like these four weeks have past quickly. I guess time does fly when you have fun. This class has been a positive experience for me and I will cherish the information that I learned in this class and use it [...]

Even though this class was held on-line, I found it to be useful in helping me become a better writer.  From this class, I take away the knowledge that I can write something that is good, if I put my mind to it.  From the reading assignments, I have become more aware of the way [...]

My biggest frustration in the research process is combining words to get the best results.  Over the years, speech-language pathologists have changed the names of disorders because they are too similar to the name of another disorder.  My topic of research is childhood apraxia of speech; however, it is also known as developmental apraxia of [...]

Research is always frustrating. No matter how many times I do it and no matter what new tricks I learn, there always seems to be something new that confuses me. Hopefully after a few more years, I will get the hang of it. I keep finding that the articles I come across have my basic [...]

Share the frustrations you are experiencing in the research process.  Are you hitting obstacles in finding sources that help you understand your topic?  Are you having trouble understanding the articles you’ve found?  Are you having trouble finding time to do the research adequately while working and managing your personal life?  Read other students’ blogs and [...]

Ok, so first of all I want to admit that I was confused with the mini bibliography assignment and I actually used a non-scholarly and COMPLETELY biased source as one of my web sources. I was embarrassed to say the least and even more embarrassing was the fact that I didn’t even notice because I [...]

Non-Scholarly http://people.umass.edu/velleman/cas.html Even though this website is a .edu, it is a link off a faculty/staff website.  It is a letter to parents explaining childhood apraxia of speech.  The website uses very general information with no citations.  The website does not provide a date of publication, nor does it state when it was last updated.  I was able [...]

  1.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_and_seizure Wikipedia is not a scholarly source for numerous reasons.               1. Derived from .org             2. Does not state author             3. Anyone can modify the information             4. The information is not backed by an expert 5. Wikipedia is not from a reputable organization (Wikipedia was been known to be wrong)             6. It provides general information but [...]

Plagiarism is not giving credit, when credit is due.  It is taking someone else’s words or idea and stating them as your own.  The readings and websites were great refreshers reminding me about rules I learned in primary and secondary schools.  I do not worry about citing information correctly, but my biggest fear is making sure [...]

To me, plagiarism means to steal someone’s work and make it your own. Before all the readings, I thought I knew a lot about plagiarism but after these readings, I realized I don’t. I had no idea that if you didn’t cite something 100% correctly then it can be counted as plagiarism. I did learn [...]

1.       Define plagiarism in your own words.  What have you learned through the reading assignments about plagiarism that you didn’t know before? 2.      What fears, if any, do you have about citing correctly?  I know that students often tell me that they “worry” about getting in trouble for plagiarism.  Such worry or fear may stem from [...]

Bibliography   Chan, A. No, You May Not Search My Car! Extending Georgia v. Randolph to Vehicle Searches. Washington Law Review v. 82 no. 2 (May 2007) p. 377-401. (Electronic Version)  Retrieved on June 26, 2008 from http://py8en6ee7p.cs.serialssolutions.com.proxy.longwood.edu/results?SS_LibHash=PY8EN6EE7P&dbIDList .   Corr, K. A law enforcement primer on vehicle searches. Loyola University Chicago Law Journal v. 30 no. 1 (Fall [...]

When searching different topics for a research paper, I have learned that about 99% of the articles I find using google are completely illegitimate. I usually just try using JSTOR because those are guaranteed to be legitimate, peer-reviewed articles that are very useful in my papers. This exercise helped me realize that I don’t just [...]

When research the topic of spanking as a discipline, I refined my search for articles is as follows: Spanking (714) Spanking as a discipline (156) Spanking as a form of discipline (18) Spanking: Child Discipline (103) Spank or no Spank (159) Spanking: Corporal Punishment (188) No spanking (78) Bad to spank (6) I had the best results when searching for spanking as a form [...]

Blog exercise using different key terms to narrow the search   Spanking as a discipline     While conducting this search I did not specify any particular field or a particular source. I wanted to see how many relevant “hits” there would be for each defined topic using the key words listed below. The results were astonishing.     Key Words                                         Number [...]

We have been studying grammar this week.  Grammar is very important to the major I am studying.  In my major, we have to take a course entitled Morphology and Syntax.  This course is all about grammar.  (Just a side note, the book The Syntax Handbook by Laura Justice is awesome!)  Grammar is used in both [...]

In my family, we all attack each other if someone uses grammar incorrectly, so I have been brought up to try my best to be right. However, this usually isn’t the case. I think grammar is a tough concept to grasp because so many of us come from different places where one word is completely [...]

Quiz   I learned a great deal from the online quizzes.  I deem the online material as a type of refresher course especially since it has been awhile since undergraduate English. English is an essential part of our everyday life and communication with others.  The online material helped me to understand that being a prolific writer is [...]

I am beginning to figure out how this whole blog thing works.  First, I want to address some questions Dr. Bidwell asked me is an email.  What church do I attend?  I attend Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, located in Colonial Heights, VA.  I have been attending now for 6 years and teaching for almost 4 [...]

How does the fourth amendment govern law enforcement relating to motor vehicles?