Senior Year

Senior year is like closing a book while opening a new one. Senior year is the year that everyone finally discover what they want to do in life and how to achieve those goals. However, unlike most my senior year went a little different...i

This year didn't turn out the way I had pictured it to be.

Lord Jesus help me make it another day.

The countdown is real.

Cons of Presenting

I will be giving a presentation in three week in English 102 class. My goal is to present my presentation the best way possible. The University of Tartu gives tips and suggestion along with a list of several ways to properly present a presentation. However, there is a video I found on YouTube of a young lady who gave a presentation in front of a crowd, Her presentation was based on trying to reduce the dropout rate in Rural Cambodia. Overall, her presentation wasn't good becuse she did not follow the suggestions that was given on this webiste above.

• Think audience.

When speaking, the presenter should put themselves in the audience shoes. While watching this video, it was obvious that she did not put herself in the shoes of her audience because if she did, she would have made her audience more engaged in her presentation by passing things out such as giving gifts or treats and/or asking questions,  As being a student and sitting through numerous presentation, that the main key. You as a presenter have to think what can you do to engage your audience and keep your audience entertained.

• Find your voice.

In this video, the presenter started off monotone and showed no emotions throughout her presentation. Also, she showed no enthusiasm in her voice while presenting. No one want to list to a presentation that is dry and boring. When a presentation is boring, that's when presenter looses their audience attention and their motivation to listen and participate.

• Practice, practice, practice.

After watching this video, I believe that this presenter did not practice her presentation before presenting. I say this because, while watching the video, the presenter barely made any eye contact because she was reading the paper that was placed on the podium. If she would have practiced, then there would have been no need to read what was on your paper verbatim.

Research Blog

The topic I choose to write my research paper about is the African American dropout rates. This paper over all was easy at first because I enjoy talking about this topic to other people. The reason why I enjoy talking about this topic to other people is because I plan on being a teacher and when I become a teacher, I plan to help decrease the dropout rates of African Americans.  I honestly, think the dropout rate is extremely high and until someone step up and try to solve the problem, it will be too late.  

After all, I feel like I did a good job researching this topic because of how important this topic mean to me. Also, I think this topic is interesting. Besides, this is an important topic in today’s society. As you look on the news, people mention how they feel about the African American dropout rate. Some state they believe something needs to be done and some state that it all depend on the student and what they plan to achieve throughout life. This paper was easy when finding sources but then it began to become stressful regarding I never wrote and eight to ten page paper by myself. Whenever I would write a paper, I would always have the help of others to assist me through my paper. Although some people gave me input on my paper like my teacher and my parents, I still feel as if my paper isn’t good enough because I had to write a total of eight to ten pages of research that I found on this topic by myself.

Some changes I would have made would have been to research additional sources that could have helped me prove my argument in my paper. I could have also asked more questions concerning the research paper and my topic as a whole. I thought I knew what to do but as I began to write my paper, I began to notice that I don’t know everything that I should know about making this paper meet the requirements needed. Since I haven’t really asked questions, I fell as that my paper isn’t good enough and it’s not what my teacher is looking for. Lastly, I think I could have changed the way I set up my paper meaning I could have changed the flow of my paper. I really didn’t know where to go but I had somewhat of an idea so in my conference with my teacher, I asked questions to make sure I was going into the right direction.

However, there are a few things I still have to do regarding my research paper. I have to do things such as making sure I cited my sources correctly throughout my paper. I think that I didn’t cite my sources correctly. I don’t think I cited my paper correctly because I was never taught how to cite my paper so I never feel comfortable citing in my paper. Also, throughout my paper I used lower class wording that’s I need to go back and change.  I used words such as nice instead of decent, pleasant, or good quality.

While searching this topic, I learned more than I thought. I found some interesting facts that I didn’t know about. I found fascinating news about certain people who has dropped out of school. For example, I found out that my father and two of my uncle’s decided to drop out of high school. After interviewing them, I learned lot interesting facts about the three of them. Also, while researching found different stories of students who have dropped out or who decided to drop out but never had the chance. After hearing different stories, I thought everyone had a unique story of their own and I found it amusing. Lastly, I didn’t realize the percentage of students who have different races were high as well. They weren’t as high as African Americans but their percentage was high also. For example, the dropout rates for Hispanics are high as well and I thought that was interesting.

However, overall, this who process was beyond stressful. I think that from researching for sources to doing work cited then writing a paper was too much work. I think that if we weren’t rushed than our paper, I know mines would be, much better than it is.