MLA Formatting

MLA:

• Bullock, Richard, Maureen Goggin, and Francine Weinberg. 'The Norton Field Guide to Writing, with Readings and Handbook (third edition).' New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 2013. Print.
• Martin, David S. Transnational Writing Program Administration. Boulder, Colorado: Utah State University Press. 2015. Print.
• 'Text-to-Text Remediation - Writing Commons'. n.p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
• Baker, Peter. 'G.O.P. Senators’ Letter To Iran About Nuclear Deal Angers White House'. Nytimes.com. n.p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
• 'Emergency Notification — Department Of Environmental Health And Safety'. louisville.edu. n.p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
• Lu, Min-zhan. 'Redefining the Legacy of Mina Shaughnessy: A Critique of the Politics of Linguistic Innocence'. Journal of Basic Writing. 1991. Print.

Reflection of Research Paper

     To choose a topic for this assignment, I started by just writing down arguments that are meaningful to me. So things I had an opinion of that was entirely my own, it was not created by reading about the argument but instead it was all original. Then I went through that list and started by taking off all the topics I felt that I already knew to much about, this was to just allow myself to learn and use sources more effectively instead of trying to find sources that backed exactly what I want. After all this I chose my topic.
     Then I started brainstorming possible reasons why my side of the argument was correct, I came up with a list of about 7 reasons why I felt I was correct. I had to narrow that list down to about 3 major topics, and then for each topic I needed a counter argument and my own argument to invalidate the counter argument. This became my general outline for what I wanted to include in m paper.
     The next thing was finding sources, Sources to back what i wanted to say and sources to attempt to invalidate the counter argument, both scholarly and not. I found 4 academic journals, a blog from an organization that is directly related to the argument in question, and I also used personal experience as a source but I cited it like an interview.
     It was challenging for me to be opinionated in this writing, because I prefer to list and talk about the facts whether I agree with them or not. But I did overcome this in the writing because I not only needed to but i enjoyed writing about the argument itself.
     I learned a lot about the laws surrounding my argument and how they are not only pointless, but that research shows they have actually increased the "problem" in most cases. It was very interesting to learn about how people view the same topic, and how something seems so obvious to me can be so foreign to someone else.
     The first assignment and this assignment were very different for me, I went into the first assignment already knowing how I wanted it to turn out. I knew how it would sound and what sources would be used. This assignment I went into less sure of myself. Also the assignments themselves were very different for me as an Engineering Major, the first assignment was strictly factual and there was little to no of my own opinion involved. This one however was much more opinionated and wanted me to back up my opinions as well as dispute counter arguments that arise because of my opinions and reasoning.

Remediation

Remediation seems the be simple in meaning, it is taking information from one form and presenting it in another. The term for form when talking about remediation is medium; writings, comics, pictures, movies, music, these are all mediums. So my research paper was a medium for the information I presented then, but I could have presented it in a song. Yes, I could have sang to you every word that was written on the paper and i could have gone as far as to make it lyrical and flow smoothly. This would be a type of remediation, if you had the written paper in front of you but i sang it to you I would be remediating the written for of the information.
Remediation also appears to be happening all the time, all around us. Now I have a word to go with what is happening, for example: every time the movie "The Incredible Hulk" is re-made that is a remediation. This is so because first it was only in theaters, next we had VHS tapes to watch the movie at home, then they upgraded to DVDs and another jump to Blue-Ray. Now you do not even need to own the film in any form, you can get on the computer and download it to watch instantly. These are all types of remediation, like if i were to make my research paper into a film or YouTube video, these are remediation's.

Second Assignment: Outline

Drinking is an enjoyable way to pass the time with friends, and a great way to unwind from the stresses of everyday life. Everyone has, at some point in time, thought about drinking, and in most first world countries it is something most people look forward to being able to do. But why is the legal drinking age different all around the world? Why is it that something everyone can agree on eventually being acceptable, can't have a standard age that applies EVERYWHERE?

Most of Europe has a purchasing age of 18, and in some places like Germany that age is 16. BUT minors are allowed to consume alcohol as long as it is provided free of charge, which basically means if it is given to them by friends or family.
Yet in this great country (USofA) the Legal Drinking Age is 21, but that's not all because it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to consume alcohol much less purchase it. And this is enforced so strictly that fines and even punishment can be given to minors who try.

Here's my position:
America as a country is new, when you compare the age of this country to the ages of European countries we are very young. So why is it that we think our laws are the best, particularly the laws about drinking. These other countries have been around for literally hundreds of years longer then America has, so why don't we think about changing our ways to more reflect those countries with greater experience?

Arguments:
Drinking by persons between the ages of 18 and 20 happens, this is a known fact. Why doesn't the government just go ahead and drop the purchase age to 18 because:

• It will allow the government to increase revenue from taxes because people from ages 18 to 20 will now be able to purchase alcohol.
• This age group will no longer feel the need to "hide" while drinking which is where the danger comes from, they will no longer need to find a place to get drunk then try to find a way home
• People will know how to handle being intoxicated by the time they are actually able to enter society and get a real job, so it will become less of a problem for public intoxication type incidences.

Counter Arguments:

• It will heavily affect seniors in high school and possible ruin GPA's in the last year of school.
• Students in college will focus more on partying and less on studying
• The human brain doesn't fully develop until 21

Answers to Counter Arguments:

• If seniors in high school have decreases in GPA's, they are still in a situation where their parents have some control over them. In these situations the parent/guardian needs to take action to prevent excessive consumption
• If a student makes it to the college level, and this is coming from personal experience, and they make the adult decision to go out to parties and not study. Then that is their choice, and they will have to deal with the consequences that come from those choices.
• If the human brain were seriously affected by the moderate alcohol consumption that comes from a few drinks a week, the world would have seen the affects of this from most countries in Europe.

So it couldn't possibly do that much harm to persons or society to lower the drinking age, however, personally I feel that there will be a significant increase in alcohol related problems for the first few years of the lowered limit. This can be expected as the rush of newly legalized drinkers go slightly crazy from the ability to buy and consume, however, this can also be compared to the amount of people who are publicly high due to the new marijuana laws that are slowly moving across the country.


Mason Knight

Drinking in the States

     Drinking in the US is a social attraction, you can buy a beer just about anywhere in this country. Drinking is considered a recreational activity that almost everyone looks forward to participating in, and it the last major mark of becoming an adult in our society. But why is it that the drinking age is so radically different around the globe? Why is it that something everyone can agree on being socially acceptable, can't have an agreed age restriction across the world?

Examples of Citations

For starters, all of these papers are properly cited using the correct process to cite the sources used whether it be: scholarly, newspapers, websites, or unpublished works. All papers give clear examples on how to properly cite sources in writing, both with in-text-citations as well as a work cited page. Commonly, all of these papers appear to be intended to be helpful in teaching the proper way to cite, and can be used and references for more tricky citing. All papers listed helpful tips regarding the citations that were used, and the tips were placed in a way that made it easy to follow along with what was being cited.
As with the first example of their similarities, a major difference in these papers is the style of citation each uses. There are also different requirements for the different styles of citations. Some information that is required to properly cite a source using MLA style, for example, may not be needed for correct citation using APA style. Also, the layout of the works cited page between these two styles is different, I mean the order that the information regarding the sources is listed is different. In-text layout is also different for the styles, and since the papers don't use the same style these differences apply to their respective citations. Lastly, the way the information on correct citing varied with the different papers and the video was completely different since it was a video.

Research Paper

   1.  Students being given personal computers for school in lower level education (high school and down)

• Is this really beneficial or is it even more of a distraction than cellphones

   2.  Raising minimum wage will benefit all lower class Americans.

• Prices will increase at the same pace as minimum wage to keep the gap.

   3.  Should the drinking age be dropped to 18 like most countries in Europe?

• More alcohol related deaths and higher teen death rates

   4.  Core classes shouldn't be included in the college curriculum.

• Core classes teach many useful skills that can be applied throughout the college career.

   5.  The death penalty should be implemented.

• Killing innocent people who have been wrongful found guilty is a crime itself.

Should the US follow the example of most European countries and lower the drinking age to eighteen? With the drinking age a full three years sooner than in America, Europe doesn't experience anymore crime than we do. So what is the real reason behind our American government keeping the drinking age at twenty-one?  The government would actually make more money if the drinking age got lowered, since there would be three year age group that will begin buying alcohol which is taxed. It really doesn't appear that there would be any real drawbacks in the grand scheme of things, so maybe the age should be lowered?

Questions from "Reviews of Scholarly Literature"

Johnson cites eight different sources in her piece, these sources appear credible in a few different ways. For starters, I recognize a few of these Publishers and I know that they usually only publish academic work. This, to me, says that these sources are works done by educated individuals who know what they are talking about, but there are also better examples. These sources have all been, for the most part, scholarly reviewed by other professionals in that field, this means that others with as much knowledge or more knowledge than that author read the piece and approved it to be published as credible. Johnson uses these sources to back up her own opinion in her piece, she states her opinion and reasons then uses these sources to help prove that her idea is correct.