the melting pot

In many ways, America is like a melting pot. With the many cultures and different types of people that reside in the United States presently, the many aspects of each culture combine to create a "salad bowl". Especially during the beginning years of American history, this great country was definitely an assortment of many different people with extremely different backgrounds. 

As time has progressed, people still boast drastically unique lineages and ancestors, but an American identity has emerged as of late. Most citizens of the United States now identify with their American identity rather than that of their ancestors even if they still may practice certain traditions of their cultures of origin. For example, my family originates from England and France; however, I identify more with being an American rather than being of French or English heritage. My family still practices traditions from my ancestors such as Mardi Gras and different cooking styles. This could be different for other Americans depending on how recently their families moved to the United States. 

While the ideals of the founding fathers aimed to create a peaceful, accepting country, sometimes cultural differences make it difficult to understand and accept one another. This causes less of a harmonious mix than the ideal "melting pot" or "salad bowl".  So while the United States is a mix of people with dissimilar backgrounds originally, the American identity overshadows these cultural ties to many citizen's original backgrounds.

how our position affects our views

A person's point of view is shaped by many different aspects. Such aspects include how we were brought up, our family, economic, religious, cultural, and social background. Each of these individual components combine to form how a person views the world and society. For instance, a person brought up in a poor village in a third world country would view something as simple as food much differently than an individual brought up in the United States upper-middle class. Simply put, sometimes our position in the world hinders our view and openness to other identities, cultures, and societies. A family dinner celebrating Jewish Passover might be very strange to a Muslim individual. We become associated with "norms" that we are used to or that we have been accustomed to and therefore view other "norms" to other people as completely foreign or backwards. Therefore, a person's position in the world has an extremely large affect on their point of view. It's just as if you were to view a large building from different angles. It's the same building all around, but it can look drastically different depending on where you stand.

Chapter 6: SYNTHESIZED.

http://theportableblender.info/research-paper-service/

This chapter was on organizing and writing research arguments.Through this class, we aim to organize our research arguments through the use of an outline; therefore, we watched movie trailers to depict a visual version of such an outline. This chapter encourages visual organization of drafts such as graphic flow charts or bubble webs. Such outlines can help you to literally picture your research paper and then organize your argument effectively as a result. After sorting through your information with a visual information map, the next step is to transfer these thoughts into a formal outline. Such an outline uses letters, numbers, and bullets to form thoughts into specific ideas. These specific ideas will give the paper a general direction to head in and will help develop the argument fully. Through the use of these specific outlines, the writer can further "fill in the blanks" and go off of these general ideas to write a paper. I generally don't prefer to use an outline, but I will see how effective it can be in organizing my jumbled thoughts regarding this research paper. 

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER...right?

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1C1SKPL_enUS441US441&biw=1920&bih=971&tbm=isch&tbnid=JKoDIUO5DatomM:&imgrefurl=http://collider.com/dvd/news/article.asp%3Faid%3D9506%26tcid%3D3&docid=hAzVjs_XQILf1M&imgurl=http://www.collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Bigger_Stronger_Faster/bigger__stronger__faster_movie_poster.jpg&w=600&h=888&ei=niqgTtiPBZCKsAKRz7HKBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=312&vpy=125&dur=337&hovh=273&hovw=184&tx=96&ty=109&sig=102199223821481486452&page=1&tbnh=165&tbnw=111&start=0&ndsp=59&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

This is a movie poster found in our Envision In Depth book and filled with lots of visual rhetoric. This movie poster was released to appeal to movie goers everywhere and promote the movie. This poster shows many different public figures, most being successful athletes, standing on a mound of steroids. The advertisement also expresses the pride of being an American through the caption associated with the asterisk on the side of "Bigger Stronger Faster" that reads, "The side effects of being American."  Yet another caption reads, "Is it still cheating if everyone's doing it?" This expresses the nonchalant and generally accepting attitude Americans have gained towards steroids. Americans seem to value being the absolute best at any cost, even cheating. Through its attempts to justify cheating, this advertisement also expresses the general idea promoted by the infamous Huey P. Long of "The end justifies the means." Is it cheating if you do end up being the biggest, the strongest, and the fastest? Does the fact that everyone else is doing it make it ok? Does the end result justify the path taken to get there?

These are all questions that this movie poster poses. Therefore, the viewer is lead to believe that the movie will confront these very issues. 

How to avoid plagiarism

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=surprised+child&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1C1SKPL_enUS441US441&biw=1920&bih=971&tbm=isch&tbnid=Ia-Qf9HJwnWjbM:&imgrefurl=http://bitchwantstea.wordpress.com/2010/01/page/2/&docid=bw3jf7fob-JVeM&w=450&h=305&ei=YleUTomEPYi6tgeUuf2GBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=179&vpy=158&dur=3733&hovh=185&hovw=273&tx=170&ty=111&page=1&tbnh=143&tbnw=191&start=0&ndsp=51&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

Plagiarism, defined as using other people's ideas and claiming it as your own, is a serious offense and must be avoided at all times. However, many people simply do not even realize that they are committing this offense when they do. Even if you take careful measures to not copy a source word for word, it can still be plagiarizing without the proper documentation. Therefore, it is important to learn to take notes and how to avoid plagiarizing. Actually, effective note-taking is a sure-fire way to by pass plagiarizing. When taking notes on the sources, you must remember to document your sources and give appropriate credit to the authors whom you've taken your information from. Also, in-text citations are imperative as to also give credit where it is due. Yet another very important and absolutely mandatory step in avoiding plagiarizing is including a works cited page or a bibliography. This ensures that all information is properly cited and acknowledged so that credit is given where it is due. Therefore, acknowledging your sources in full is a necessary step in writing and can lead to a successful, plagiarism-free research paper. 

paragraph from EOL

All of these sources have differing variables of reliability and add different amounts of strength to the argument because of their credibility. The benefits of using online sources are that they are easily accessible, don’t take up space in your book sack, and they are the most recent information on the topic; however, sometimes an unchanging book might be more stable in providing reliable information just because it was approved and published. Therefore, it is important to use both types of sources to give strong evidence to the paper.

Examples of some of my sources along with a review of each:

• http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
• all the facts and laws on the death penalty in the United States. Also has some specific cases.
• good, strong, reliable source (.org)
• http://grant-sebastian-nell.suite101.com/the-mongol-war-machine-a66150
• Tells of the history of the mongols. Shows that the death penalty was effective in this culture because it made a huge military machine capable of controlling vast amounts of people over a large area
• has a date and an author, strong source
• http://www.stardem.com/article_e21b5b77-0dbe-500e-a702-593e6bcb1392.html
• Shows the execution of an innocent man
• Sketchy website, but has an author listed and date published
• http://www.prejean.org
• tells the story of Sister Helen Prejean and her battle to end the death penalty in the US
• good, reliable, strong website (.org)
• http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/77715c83-dcd0-4e39-b68f-e51cff2eb3db.html
• good cartoon that’s anti-death penalty
• reliable, credible

Chapter 5: Finding and Evaluating Research Sources

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This particular chapter was on finding sources to strengthen or prove the argument presented in a paper. I found this chapter to be extremely useful because of our upcoming research paper. The chapter spoke of using the available sources and then further shaping the argument into a paper for your specific audience. To do this, the author urges the writer to learn the topic, the conversation, and the research context. All of which are vital to presenting the argument effectively. 

The metaphor of the "iceberg of research" helps form the process of research into the actual product of the research. The actual paper will only be one tiny part of the research. It will only present a small portion of the research that was actually done by the writer. By doing all of this research, the essay writer is able to assess the sources and therefore form his or her own opinion more clearly on the subject. All of the information simply helps the writer to present his or her opinions in a credible way after thoroughly understanding all of the sources. 

It is extremely important to develop useful search terms in researching the topic. It's all about the words used. If they are too broad, many unrelated subjects might appear in the search. If they are too narrow, not very many options will be available. Whether it be using google or browsing through a library's catalog, the researcher's choice of words will determine the outcome of his or her search. 

Research can be divided into two parts: secondary and primary sources. Primary sources are the stronger, more reliable sources. These include first hand accounts such as speech scripts, photos, historical documents, and writing on websites. Secondary sources help us to interpret the primary sources and are just as valuable, yet less credible. These include surveys, commentaries, or articles.

After these sources are found, the writer must evaluate the sources. It is important to weed out the less reliable sources and only keep the reliable, credible, and authoritative ones.