Introduction: Hi my name is April Andrade and I'm a freshman who's majoring in Criminology, Law and Society. I have a great passion for the field of law and justice that approaches the expanding truth, upon crime itself around the world. I have always been interested in law enforcement and therefore, I wish to achieve my goal of becoming a detective/investigator to detect crimes and analyze evidence for further conclusions. The picture below shows the book I'm currently reading in my criminology course and it emphasizes on the relationship between morality and law, driven by people's behavior upon critical conditions happening around the world.
The last english course I took, was a writing development class that involved the basic components of writing. We focused on how to structure a research essay, using a research question to provoke critical thinking as a way of expanding a fundamental development with the topic being discussed. In the previous class, I learned how to write bibliography’s and quote analysis using accurate citations on both MLA and APA reports, to state authors and articles. I also learned about different readings techniques to enhance my understanding of articles, journals, novels and short stories. Which includes, skimming, scanning, visualizing and questioning text as I read along.
My skills in writing have improved throughout time with the expansion of my vocabulary but it also depends on the topic and knowledge I have on the content, whether I feel confident or not. Reading is something that I struggle with, not because the words are intimidating but because I can't stay focus. If I can't stay focus, then it's harder for me to develop an understanding with the text and I start to re-read the same paragraph over and over again. I feel way more confident with my communication skills by addressing my thoughts and ideas in a verbal interaction set with tone. Overall, I can read and understand complicated written text, when I take good annotations throughout each sections that seem overwhelming. I mainly read articles about current events and I do it regularly, compare to novels. My problem area in writing , is starting the introduction of an essay since I don't know what type of information to include, inorder to make my arguments stronger and clear. My problem area in reading, is engaging with a novel that I have no interest for, since I show no motivation to connect with the text if it's something I don't want to read about or it's not interesting. My problem area in communicating, is stating too much information all at once, without having a lot of relevance and connection to the topic. The area I excel in the most in writing, is connecting real life experiences and scenarios to the topics being discussed, by contributing examples to my arguments/understandings. The area I excel in the most in reading, is annotating the sources with highlighting important key findings and using that as a tool to analyze the readings, and find the overall importance of the authors claims.
In the language and Grammar Diagnostic quiz on connect, I had the most trouble with identifying the sentences that didn't have a dangling modifier and sentences that have parallel structure with effective stylistically. I wasn't surprised when I got my final results because I wasn't familiar with most of the words used in each question.
Syllabus: Genre Analysis essay is due on week 6, February 13th and is worth 40% of the grade. While the Imitation project is due March 13th and it's worth 60%.
Course Objectives: While gaining fundamental knowledge of genre and rhetorical devices of the course of readings. Being able to define the relationships and gain critical thinking with peer evaluation and feedback is a great learning establishment as well.
Grade Contract: If you follow the instructions of the given assignments and complete those assignments on time, you will receive a B. Not attending class after 2 absences, can result in not earning the B and getting a lower grade.