MLA Works Cited Pages

In MLA Works Cited pages when documenting websites and parts of websites with an author or editor you are supposed to put the publisher after the title of the website, and the title of the website should be italicized. On work from a website which is defined as short works such as articles or individual web pages the title of the short work is placed in quotation marks and the title of the website is italicized. I am confused on what is the difference between the two? While researching my blog I discovered that the difference between the two is that if you are using an entire website then it would be the first example. The website title would be italicized and then you would list the publisher. If you are using work from a website you would use the second example. The title of the short work would include quotation marks around it, and the title of the website would be italicized. The other question that I had was when the author’s name is the same for two different resources in the same paper should you use three dashes in the place for the author’s name on the second resource cite? Also, do you then alphabetize by the title?

The Struggle to Find Balance Between College and Life

With the demands of work, family, and friends, college students struggle to balance school work and everyday life. The number of hours a week that a student works, or their responsibilities will determine the amount of time that a college student has for schoolwork. If you take away personal time and friends this does not allow a lot of time, even if they are not working a full-time job or have small children. A good example would be a working mother with one small child. If this mother procrastinated and did not use good time management by letting her schoolwork sit until the last minute. She would take a difficult situation and turn it into an impossible situation. At this point she would likely do poor in school or possible quit. Good time management will be the key for her to being successful in college. This is the perfect example that demonstrates the importance of going to school before you accept the responsibilities of a family.

What Best Friends Should Be

We would be lucky to have a handful of best friends in a lifetime. The type of person it takes to call best friend has many qualities. The most important of which could be different for each of us. There are a few qualities that would be important to all of us. Honesty has to be at the top of our lists. The kind of honesty that it takes to tell us the truth no matter how hard it is, or how much it hurts. Another important quality for a best friend would be to have your back. Not just have your back when things are going well, but when the chips are down and things are falling apart. One of the other qualities that are important for a best friend is that they are on the same mental wavelength. You know each other's thoughts without having to say them. Best friends are hard to find, but when you do, these are a few of the qualities that most of us are looking for in a best friend.

Social Media is Detrimental to our Face-to-Face Interactions with Strangers

Social media is detrimental to our face-to-face interactions with strangers. Although social media has created the ability for us to communicate easier and more efficient than face-to-face interactions, the majority of communication is non-verbal. This means social media is decreasing the quality of our interactions. We are losing the elements of communication that are contained in facial expressions, gestures, and posture. Due to our busy life styles, easier and efficient is appealing to more people. Even at times when we are face-to-face with others, we are spending our time on our devices checking our social media accounts. With the increasing lack of interpersonal communication due to social media our ability to interact in a traditional face-to-face manner has become challenging, especially for the younger members of our society.  For these reasons, I believe social media is detrimental to our face-to-face interactions with strangers.

The Best Act of Kindness

The best act of kindness from a stranger that I have ever seen is an act where members of a community observed an elderly man in his 60’s that walked several miles from his residence to his place of employment, and then after work he would make the trip back home. The elderly man did this six or seven days a week. After about a year of seeing this man making his daily trek a good Samaritan offered him a ride. During this ride the elderly man explained his situation, that he could not afford a vehicle. The good Samaritan rallied community churches and businesses. The community was able to purchase a relatively new vehicle for the elderly man. Knowing that the elderly man’s issue was financial. They also purchased him a prepaid maintenance package, fuel, and insurance for two years. When the elderly man was interviewed, he was crying. He explained that he was at his breaking point, and did not know how much longer he could have walked back and forth to his job. He said that he was experiencing severe joint pain. This elderly man was doing his best. It was refreshing to see his community help him.

Peer Revision Process

What I gained from the peer revision process was a fresh set eyes looking at my diagnostic essay. Although my partner’s feedback was minimal, my partner did make a couple good points. I think another point that the peer revision helped me with was I knew someone else was going to read my paper and I didn’t want it to make me look bad. My partner’s paper was hand written and difficult to read, so I was not able to help my partner much. Reading my diagnostic essay out loud to my partner was the most helpful part of the exercise. One way to make the exercise better would have been to separate the room into the students that had their paper typed and handwritten. It would seem that the students that had their paper typed were more interested in doing well on the paper, so I believe their feedback would have been better.

Most Frustrating Parts of Writing

Correct grammar and the structure of the paper are the two parts of writing that are frustrating for me. I began the writing process by brainstorming ideas. Then I tried to put the first draft in the correct order and location. I have made a lot of changes to the grammar and structure of my diagnostic writing essay. I do not know what would be a reasonable amount of time to complete an assignment like this, but I feel like it has taken me too much time for the amount of work product I have completed. I am hoping that I am just learning something new, and at some point, I will get the hang of writing these papers. I want to get better at this, but it does feel a little overwhelming at times.

Medal of Honor Recipient Lt. Michael Murpy

Medal of Honor recipient and Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy exemplifies integrity, selflessness, and valor; the beliefs that I hold dear. Murphy earned the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in the mountains of Afghanistan during Operation Red Wing. Murphy displayed these same qualities at an early age by defending a special needs classmate from bullies. During Operation Red Wing, Murphy and his team of four seals were conducting reconnaissance for one of Osama bin Landen’s top lieutenants and his militia force. Once they located the lieutenant and his force, the team attempted to move to a higher position that would enable them to communicate with their commanders. While moving to this position the team was compromised by three goat herders. Murphy and his team made a critical decision based on pre-mission intelligence and rules of engagement to release the herders. This decision would ultimately lead to their demise. Murphy and his team were soon attacked by close to 100 Taliban fighters. The team was severely outnumbered and still unable to communicate. The attacking force quickly gained the upper hand injuring all of the members of the team. Murphy, realizing the gravity of the situation and with gunfire all around him, moved to an open position to use his cell phone to call for help. While making the call, Murphy was shot in the back, but even after being mortally injured he was able to communicate his location and situation to his commanders before his death, in an attempt to save the lives of his team. It is due to his lifelong commitment to integrity, selflessness, and valor that I chose to write about Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy.