Short&Sweet

    These short letters to the editor contain direct and specific issues that occur within the region. They are short and straight forward. Almost all of them are supporting an issue or demanding a state of action. Many have eye catching titles. They are like headlines which talk about the whole piece within a few words. They are like mini essays and the point/thesis of the piece is very evident. Each "blog" is set in a colloquial tone. They are informal and therefore can get straight to the point without seeming impolite. The writer in these pieces is also an informal person. They don't really have a title and seem to be commoners. The things that they write are more based on their own opinion than that of others.

    In the seventh chapter of From Inquiry to Academic Writing, the notion of summarizing and paraphrasing is mentioned. It is mainly about all the possible ways to shorten a piece of writing into more manageable portions. Both are techniques used to shorten a passage. Even though they seem the same they are different. Paraphrasing is lengthy-er and contains the meat of the message. Whereas summaries contain the bare bones of the passage. Both must present the "gist of an argument" where you are "expressing the author's central idea in a sentence or two"(134).  In this chapter there is also talk about synthesizing, where you compare two or more works against each other. With this technique, summarizing is essential. you have to know that main argument of each piece in order to compare them fairly. Plagiarism is a big no no. It is the worst offense you can do in the academic community.   In order to avoid plagiarism you must use your own style of voice to reinterpret what the passage was trying to evoke. The most important thing to do is always cite your sources. That way the original author is given the recognition he/she deserves.

    I don't know but this week has been the most stressful week of my schooling years. Literally every day of class I had,there was something due in ALL of my classes. That's flippin' crazy. I felt so hectic. I'm glad it's the almost weekend already. I'm gonna feel so relieved until I realize I still have finals to study for. Sheesh. Are blogs meant to vent like this? I wonder... Anywho the week has been so long... probably because I have been up all night and losing major amounts of sleep.