Learning experience

By C White Many things came out of my first-year college composition courses. It strengthened my confidence in writing and comprehending literary pieces. I was not very confident when I went back to school, as I had taken a few years off after college to figure out what interested me. I spent about three years off after high school and many of the skills I had learned in high school had been forgotten. I believe first-year college composition courses are vital to everyone coming out of high school. Even if students feel like they have college level writing skills refining them will boost the confidence of the young writers moving on throughout college. High schools do not provide the skills that writers need to have for college level writing. I feel like my writing at the beginning of the semester were subpar and that I have gotten much better as a writer as the semester has come to a close. I feel like I’m much more confident. I do not freak out about having to write papers as much as I did at the beginning of the semester. I learned many things in my first-year college composition course. The most important was learning how to cite sources in my papers. Citing sources is a necessity when writing any college paper. Without those skills it is easy to plagiarize a paper without meaning to. One thing I did not learn that I expected to was how to avoid being biased in my argument papers. I suppose that it comes with experience at writing argument papers. I would not use that to discount the value of first-year college composition courses, as that is something that would be hard to teach students in class. I believe that these courses are necessary for anyone that is coming into college. I had subpar writing skills when I started college and I feel that my writing skills have improved dramatically. I still have a long way to go as a writer, but the skills I learned throughout have really helped me feel like I could become successful in college and in my profession after graduation.

Research is Valuable

By. C White I think online research being implemented into first year college courses is very valuable. Online research is a valuable skill to have in life. You need to be able to use the internet for many things once you get out into the world. You need to know how to use the internet to find a job. Just about every company has online applications. You need to know how to find the applications to apply for the jobs in your field of employment. Once you find a job your employer will expect you to know how to use the internet to do research. It could be to learn about a rival company or maybe you need to know about a product they are interested in using. It is important to learn the skills needed to research in your personal life as well. When you buy a car it is important to research many cars before you choose which one to purchase. It is important to use multiple sources when you are going to buy a car. One site may really like a car and another may hate a car. It is also really important to get opinions from people who own the car which are easily found on the internet. Some may be bias, but if you see an overwhelming amount of personal reviews going one far it can be a good indicator of how the car is going to be. The main reason it is good to get opinions from owners is they can say if the car is going to reliable and durable. Research can also be used in other purchases as well. I like to research video games before I buy them. They are hit and miss. It may look like a good game in the commercial and be a complete dud when it hits the market. Advertising can be misleading at times and shouldn’t be trusted when making a purchase. I think personal reviews are the best to reference when purchasing a game. I think some websites are bias towards certain companies and franchises.

Tests and why we need them.

By.CWhite In Tamar Lewin article “A New SAT Aims to Realign with Schoolwork” he writes about changes that are going to be mad to the SAT. They are looking to make the SAT more like the ACT by removing the penalty for guessing and making the essay portion optional. The article states that high school grades are a bigger determining factor toward college grades than standardized test scores. I took the act and did not take the SAT, so I cannot comment on how the SAT test is taken. I took the residual ACT for my college. I did not take ACT coming out of high school because I had no intention of going to college. The ACT is a relatively easy test it is straightforward. I think the ACT is a good way to test a student’s ability going into college. I received a twenty-one on my ACT which I think is accurate to my abilities. I see myself as an average college student. I think the ACT is a good measure of a student’s ability to do well in college. Some people would say those standardized tests are not a good way to test students, because not everyone is a good test taker, but I think this is a poor excuse. Life tests us every day and we need to rise to the occasion. We simply cannot say I do not do well on tests. When college students get out into the real world their boss will not care that he or she does not do well under pressure they will expect results. When I was in high school I thought standardized test were useless, because how can a test tell if I will do well in college. I also did not like them because I had no intention of going to college. I hated school in high school. It was not until years after getting out of high school that I found that I needed to further my education to reach my goals in life. I went back to school sucked up my pride and took the test I hated in high school and to my surprise it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I think standardized tests should not be abolished. How else could you tell if a student was knowledgeable or if they just sleepwalked throughout school? Would you trust your freedom to a lawyer that did not take the Lsat? I know I would not trust my freedom to someone who was not put to the test. If a doctor never had to pass a test to be licensed as a doctor I know I would not trust his diagnosis of what is wrong with me. We need to be held accountable no longer should being a bad test taker be an excuse for doing poorly.

Volunteering

By. C White When I was a teenager I used to volunteer at my churches soup kitchen. Every summer on Friday I would go and help out for about four hours. I would load trucks up with food, handout food, and help people to their cars. Our soup kitchen was different than others, because we would handout can food and boxed food. We gave out groceries instead of providing a meal like most soup kitchens do. My grandmother was the pastor at the church, so she encouraged me to volunteer. At first I hated giving up my Friday to help out, but after a while I enjoyed helping out. Seeing how much good came from my acts really motivated me to continue going. Sometimes I was able to talk my friends into helping which made volunteering more enjoyable. I think volunteering is what you make of it. I also use to help out on holidays when the church would have open to the public dinners. It was nice, because I was able to do something for the holidays. In my family holidays are not really considered a big deal. It was only three hours out of my day, but it may have made someone else’s day. It was worth it in my opinion. I think more people should volunteer on the holidays. If you are someone who does not have plans for the holidays it is largely rewarding. If I had received payment for my actions it would not have been the same. I work at a gas station that serves food. Basically it involves doing the same things I do when I volunteer, but I enjoy volunteering. The difference is that doing your job does not feel rewarding and volunteering is rewarding. When you are getting paid for an act it becomes dull in my opinion. You are looking to get through you shift, whereas with volunteering you can really enjoy the process of it. I think volunteering is something everyone should try at some point in their life. It is amazing how rewarding volunteering can be. I really enjoy taking time out to volunteer, but it is getting increasingly difficult to make time to do it. I can understand why many people do not volunteer with work and everything else going on in our busy lives. It is really important to make time for good deeds.

Being a Good President

By.CWhite There are many qualities that make a good president. The way the president runs the office and his personal qualities factor in when making a good president. We have had presidents that were liberal that were good and we have had conservative presidents that were good. Their political views are not what made them good. It matters if they care about people or if they want the power of the position. One characteristic that makes for a good president is if they put the needs of the many over the needs of the few. This means looking out for the unemployed and underpaid. Many people struggle to make a living. Presidents need to make sure they have opportunities to be employed and make a living. Many presidents want to lower taxes for the wealthy, which is fine as long as it doesn’t distract from helping the people who really need helping. To be a good president you need to be open and honest with the public to an extent. There are things that the public needs to know and there are things the government has to keep secret to protect the country. If the president plans to increase taxes or make a significant change to a policy or law he should probably let the public know. If the president is planning a military strike that is something he cannot tell the public it would hurt the country. There are many characteristics that make a good president these are just a few that I think help make a good president. There are probably too many characteristics to name it would be impossible to name them all. I think looking out for your citizens and being honest are probably the most important characteristics a president could have.

By Chris W To me freedom is about being able to dress the way you want, drive the kind of car you want, practice any religion you want, and the right to speak your mind, so long as you don’t infringe on others rights and freedom. The right to freedom of speech, religion, and to bear arms is not common in other countries. People such as Amanda Knox, Nelson Mandela, and Rubin Carter are truly not free. Nelson Mandela fought for the rights of people and was imprisoned for it, because he didn’t have freedom of speech, which we have in America. Rubin Carter was not given due process his conviction was not right the police should have done their job and collected all evidence it seems like they wanted an easy closure to the crime and pinned it on him. Due process would have meant taking fingerprints and listening when witness did not place Carter at the scene of the crime. Amanda Knox was another case of not receiving due process, but outside of America citizens are not given the same rights and freedoms. She was unjustly imprisoned, because it is better to blame a crime on a foreigner. As Americans we overlook the importance of our freedoms not enjoyed in other countries on earth.

By Chris W To me personally argument and logic mean using logic to back up your argument you cannot make a good argument without logic to back it up. Logic is using your knowledge to deduct facts into an argument. I have written argument papers in the past and I cannot write a good argument without having proof that what I am arguing is the right thing. I am going to be writing an essay on why global warming is not what the media is portraying it to be and to back up my stance on the issue I am going to find sources that back that up. It is important to me to prove that global warming is not what it is made out to be what the media is portraying it to be, because I feel people need to know the truth about global warming. The media is putting fear into people that is unneeded fear and I hope to find sufficient proof to lay some of the fear to rest. I believe that the as a planet we have natural progressions of warm and cold spells and that we are in an ice age and we will be coming out of it and it is nothing to worry about.