Journal 14: Your First Source

I hope that you learned a lot from our time at the library. As you can see, the CSUF librarians are very busy, but they love to help students work on their research projects. You will have to write many important research papers during your time at an American university. The more you learn now, the less you'll have to worry later!

Prompt: In the university, professors often require you to submit an "Annotated Bibliography" before you start working on your research paper. This bibliography helps the professor know whether or not you are going in the right direction for your research.

Step 1) Use one of the databases that we learned about in the library with Mr. Hickok. You may use a popular (newspaper/magazine) or scholarly database. Find at least ONE article.

Step 2) Read or skim through the article.

Step 3) In your Journal entry give the APA citation. The databases should give it to you (look for "Cite" or "Cite This"). If not, you can use the back of the handout he gave you to write it yourself.

Step 4) Give me a paragraph summary of how you might use this source. You should include the following information: Who is the author? Will this help you answer your research question or give you a background on your topic? How?

For example, here is an example annotation from the annotated bibliography I wrote for a research paper I wrote on "Place Names in English".

Angus, D. (2005). Place name morphology and the people of Los Angeles. California Linguistic Notes. 30 (2). Retrieved from http://hss.fullerton.edu/linguistics/cln

Duncan Angus is a linguistics professor at CSUF. He noticed that while many people used the word Angeleno to refer to people from Los Angeles, not everyone did. It made him wonder what the most common form was. In this article Angus discusses the results of his survey. This was useful for me because this is what made me interested in the topic of place name morphology in English. I will conduct my own survey and compared my answers with Angus's. I want to find out if most people who live here in Orange County use Angeleno or something else.

Due: Wednesday, April 13th at 10PM

Get ready for research!

Journal 13: Research Question

Prompt: What did you learn about your topic today in class on Wikipedia? What areas seem interesting to you? Have you already started to think about some possible research questions? Remember that a good research topic is one that you already know a little about but about which you are interested in learning more. What did you already know about this topic? In what area do you want to learn more?

Due: Friday, March 25. 10PM

Note: Don't forget to stay on schedule or else you'll look like this guy!


Let the intellectual adventure begin!

Journal 12: Spring Break

Despite the gray skies, Spring Break is almost here! Spring Break is something all college students in America look forward to. Sometimes it's crazy, sometime it's not, but it's always fun!

Prompt: What are YOU planning on doing for Spring Break?

Due Friday, March 11th by 10PM.

Cowabunga dudes,

Journal 11: Dr Dolittle

Here's a silly journal topic for you!

One of my favorite movies as a child was Doctor Dolittle. It was about this professor named Dolittle who learned all the animals' languages. He could speak with every animal! Most people didn't believe him, of course. It always made me wonder, however, what animals would have to say to us if they did have a language of their own.

Prompt: What would happen if animals could talk? What are some of the questions you would like to ask animals?

Due Friday, March 4th by 10PM.

Note: You can listen to and read the story here.


Man is an animal too,

Journal 10: Advice

People seek advice from friends, role models, teachers, and families. Americans often write in to newspaper advice columns like Dear Abby. I think some people love to give advice - maybe even a little too much!

Prompt: What is the best advice you were ever given? Did you follow this advice? What happened? Alternatively, what is the best advice you have ever given?

Due: Wednesday, March 2nd. 10PM

Note: You'll notice we use words like seek, give, and follow with advice. Try to use these correctly in your journal.

Go Ask Alice,

Journal 9: American Food

Since the United States of America has only been around for 232 years, it makes sense that it doesn't have the same number of traditional dishes as some of your countries, which have been around for thousands of years.

Prompt: What is American food? If your friend said, "Let's go eat American," what would you think he meant? Are hamburgers the only traditional American food? What do you think about American food? Do you enjoy any of it? Do you hate all of it? You could compare or contrast it with your own food or describe the causes and effects of the American style of eating.

Due Friday, Feb. 25 by 10pm.

Yum yum,

Journal 8: Optimistic Quote

Often in college (and on the TOEFL and GMAT!) we have to respond to quotes. We will have a few journal entries where you can react to these. Here's the first one:

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill

Prompt: What does this quote mean? Do you agree with it? How does it apply to your life? Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic? Give an example.

Due Wednesday, Feb 23rd. 10PM.

Note: A famous example of pessimism and optimism is the question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?"

"The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole",