Week 8 literature review

In writing the literature review I did find that it was very helpful in how I will be able to write research papers in the future. It gave me the guidance to review sources and see if they are what I would really need in researching a topic. I did have some questions left unanswered regarding my topic. It also did raise more diversity in the direction I could go with my research. There were a lot of aspects if my topic that I had not thought about or considered. I think overall the way this class is set up and the ultimate goal of the literature review really expands the students research capabilities. I honestly did not know what was expected from a research paper, or how to really compose one prior to this course.

Week 7 annotated bibliography

In developing my annotated bibliography this week I found it helpful to use the Craap test with each one of my sources. Comparing the sources to the Craap test made it easy to weed out exactly what would and what would not be helpful to my topic. I found that a few soures I had thought of using really didn't present with being from a reliable source. Also one of the sources seemed to just barely touch on what I would be needing it for. Overall I was pretty shocked at how easy it was to finds articles etc. on my topic. What was the greater challenge was reliable sources. This course has helped me to develop skills for better research. I took a few classes here at Brandman prior to this course and it was difficult to find sources seeing as I wasn't exactly taught where to find them. Thanks for guiding me!

Week 6 - Plagiarism

I thought for the most part that I knew pretty much what would be considered plagiarism. I had not realized that you could even plagiarize yourself. The extent of what is considered plagiarism and proper citing techniques were quite overwhelming when I first began classes at Brandman. Something I noticed after I learned more about plagiarism was just how often it occurs and people don't realize it. I see plenty of people plagiarize on social media. People use song lyrics or quotes frequently on Facebook and other social media without citing them. I'm sure that most people don't realize they are plagiarising when they do it. Plagiarism on the whole seems like a pretty difficult situation to avoid if people are unaware they are doing it.