Journal Entry #18(Week 15)

Tools Used For Research

There has been a lot of eye opening experience gained through this class. First of all, I would have to say that the ability to research a topic fully and then transform that information into a meaningful presentation in the form of a research paper will be very useful in my future. Anything you learn that helps you communicate your thoughts and ideas in an efficient way will always be valuable no matter what you are doing for a career. The process of gathering relevant information and narrowing down a topic to specific points is very important in any job. We have all read well-written research papers and know that staying focused on the purpose set out for any given research is vital to its success. I feel this class has given me tools that help me be more focused when I write, not just a research paper but anything else that might require you to get right to the point. I.e. e-mail, job applications, business letters, even personal letters can benefit from an organizational approach to communication. Organizing and storing information is also a tool I find valuable i.e. delicious.com, class wiki, and in my case I used Google alerts and an e-mail folder to help keep my research organized so it was easy to find. I also enjoyed the journal entries we did, although I don’t feel as a class we spent much time reading each others entries each week, we have all been busy and some times feel relieved just to get through the week and get the minimum assignments done on time. The journal for me was of course part of our assignments each week but I tried to have a little fun with it when I had a little extra time. Finding videos to post on my blog that were relevant to my topic was enjoyable. Overall, this class has exposed me to tools and information that makes written communication a lot less stressful and a little more fun. The words Research Paper and Bibliography were foreign, even scary words to me before this class. Now I feel at least capable of using all the tools we learned to repeat this process in future classes and some degree of confidence that the end result will be a success.

Journal Entry #17(Week 14)

ISAAC ASIMOV
A short video


Informal Outline (Literary Essay)

Daniel Hopson
English 112
Professor Clark
May 1, 2008

Literary Essay (Informal Outline)

INTRODUCTION:
Isaac Asimov: Issaac Asimov, one of the most prolific Science Fiction writers of the 20th Century has made a vast contribution to the history and proliferation of the Sci Fi genre. His life and the books he has written are still as interesting and vital to Fantasy and Science fiction literature as the day they were written.

I. Early Childhood and Education.
Life in Russia
His Parents
Father
Education
Career
Mother
Education
Career

II. Asimov Relocation and US Education.
Areas of study
Chemistry
Masters Degree

III. Asimov and the Humanist philosophy
What is Humanism
How was he influenced by this philosophy

IV. Asimov’s early literary works.
Short Stories
Poetry
Novel

V. Asimov’s Later Literary Works.
His Award winning Novel
B. Influences in his writing

CONCLUSION:

Research Isaac Asimov (Continued)

#1 Resource searched
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/isaac-asimov/
Keywords and search strings used
Biography+Isaac+Asimov
Date
5/4/08
Hits
61
Relevance (scale of 1 to 5)
(5)

#2 Resource searched
http://www.scarecrowpress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0810854201
Keywords and search strings used
Biography+Isaac+Asimov
Date
5/5/08
Hits
61
Relevance (scale of 1 to 5)
(2)

#3 Resource searched
http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/fr/GoodLife.htm
Keywords and search strings used
Biography+Isaac+Asimov
Date
5/6/08
Hits
61
Relevance (scale of 1 to 5)
(3)

Journal Entry #16(Week 13)

Literary Research Continued

#1 Resource searched
http://das-ubernerd.blogspot.com/2008/04/nebula-winners-of-1970s.html

Keywords and search strings used
Isaac Asimov
4/21/08
Hits - 14
Relevance (scale of 1 to 5)(5)

#2 Resource Searched
http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645
Key Words
Google Alert (Isaac Asimov)
4/24/08
Relevance - 2of5

#3 Resource Searched
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/asimov.htm
Key Words
Isaac Asimov
Web Page
4/23/08
Relevance - (5) of (5)

#4 Resource Searched
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
Key Words
Isaac Asimov
Internet Encyclopedia
4/21/08
Relevance - 5 of 5

#5 Resource Searched
http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_home_page.html
Key Words
Isaac Asimov
Home Page
4/21/08
Relevance- 3 of 5

#6 Resource Searched
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Isaac_Asimov/
Quotation Page Isaac Asimov
Key Words
Isaac Asimov search
4/20/08
Relevance - 4 of 5

#7 Resource Searched
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0506/editorial.shtml
Editorial
Key word
Editorial+Isaac Asimov
4/18/08
Relevance - 3 of 5

#8 Resource Searched
http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Biography-of-Isaac-Asimov&id=309974
Biography of Isaac Asimov
Key Words
Biography+Isaac+Asimov
4/29/08
Hits - 23
Relevance - 5 of 5

Journal Entry #15(Week 12)

Research Proposal Summary
(Literary Research)

Issac Asimov, an award winning Author whom is one of the most prolific science fiction authors of the past five decades. His popular works include NIGHTFALL (1941),FOUNDATION (1951), FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE (1952), SECOND FOUNDATION (1953), THE CAVES OF STEEL (1954), THE END OF ETERNITY (1955), THE NAKED SUN (1957), and THE GODS THEMSELVES (1972), which won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. The research I will conduct centers around his life. What kind of education he received and his personal life. What kinds of literature he personally enjoys and the scope of his own literature ranging from poetry, short stories and novels. While I enjoy Science Fiction I felt that in conducting my research and presenting the paper to others in class they may decide to read some of his work. Not everyone is a Sci-Fi fan but presenting this opportunity to the class it may spark some interest.
They’re several reasons for my interest in Asimov. Beginning with my childhood I remember ordering a science fiction journal published in magazine form and marketed to schools. I remember receiving the journal once a month in a subsciption format. Science Fiction has always been a favorite subject for casual reading and even before I was a proficient reader I forced the pages over, only comprehending about half of what I read. In my later school years I also enjoyed going back to Asimovs literature and re-reading it when I could understand more of what he wrote. I figured this literary research project was a good opportunity to find out more about the author.
Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, as the son of Judah Asimov and Anna Rachel Berman Asimov. His father was educated within the limits of Orthodox Judaism, but religion did not play a central role in Isaac's childhood. "He didn't even bother to have me bar mitzvahed at the ago of thirteen," Asimov remarked later. Judah Asimov was well read in Russian literature, but especially he loved Sholem Aleichem's Yiddish stories. During World War I he served in the Russian Army. In 1923 the family moved to the United States, and settled in New York. Before opening a sweet-shop, Judah worked in odd jobs, and learned also to speak English. In old age, when he retired to Florida, he became Orthodox again. Asimov himself never learned Russian, and the culture of his parents' native country remained him distant.
"Asimov could read before he entered the first grade. He also had "a near-photographic memory." At school, Asimov finished books in a few days. His father got him a library card, but did not supervise the books his son read. A classic "bookworm", Asimov devoured early works on Greek mythology, the Iliad, William Shakespeare plays, history books, all kinds of miscellaneous reading. One library was not enough - he used to go to every one within reach. After leaving Boys High School in Brooklyn, an elite school in those days, Asimov studied chemistry at Columbia University, New York, where he graduated in 1939 and received his M.A. in 1941."
I have been fortunate to have already found an abundance of information on the author. I conducted an Internet search and was pleasantly surprised at the result. Not to much information to be overwhelmed but sufficient to write my paper. I look forward to this opportunity to learn about one of the foremost Sci-Fi authors of the twentieth century.

Works Cited

Amazon.com. "Editorial Reviews." Editorial. Editorial Reviews (2008): 2 pars. 16 Apr. 2008 http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553293354.

Issac Asimov. Ed. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Apr. 2008. Wikipedia. 23 Apr. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=special:cite&page=isaac_asimov&id=207445967>.

Issac Asimov Home Page. 1 Apr. 2008. 23 Apr. 2008 http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_home_page.html.

Lessing, Doris. "Asimov's Science Fiction." Asimov's Science Fiction. 4 Apr. 2008. 18 Apr. 2008 .

Journal Entry #14 (Week 11)

Research and Literary Progress
I have just been killing my self trying to get caught up on all of my assignments and hopefully it pays off. I can finally take a breath, but just one breath as our next deadline is fast approaching. I plan to go through my research paper paragraph by paragraph and try to work out the bugs and get everything properly cited and formatted. I noticed from reading other papers that I need to change a few things with regard to my quotations and in text citation.
My literary topic is starting to manifest itself in my brain as I think of different ways to approach this assignment. I think my best bet is to just make a dissision and move on with the assignment. I found it is to easy to get bogged down with making the choice instead of using the energy to develop a choice.

Journal Entry #13 (Week 10)

Research Journal
Report on your field research. Write at least one well-developed paragraph summarizing the results of your field research. Discuss what you did and what you learned from your field research. If you conducted a survey or passed out a questionnaire, include the questions you asked and the results you got.

Bedford Bibliographer
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/bbibliographer/default.asp?uid=0&rau=0

Application Project
Use the research you have done to write one of the following:

Journal Entry(ies) or Personal Letter(s):Â Write one or more journal entries or personal letters to a friend or family member discussing events related to your topic as if you were an individual involved in that event.

Short Story or Scene from a Play:Â Write a short story or scene from a play (dialogue) set during events related to your topic or using information on your topic.
News Article: Â Write a news article related to your research topic.

Editorial:Â Write an editorial expressing an opinion related to your research topic.
I'll consider other types of documents. Please e-mail me about your idea.
The document will be accompanied by a brief essay (in MLA format) with a Works Cited page explaining which sources you used and how you used them. The two documents combined must be at least 1200 words long. The essay and Works Cited page should probably be at least 300 words long.
Submit your project and essay as .doc (versions of Word prior to 2007) or .rtf (any word processing program) files to the assignment dropbox linked in this learning module.

Field Research Update (Week 10)

My field research presented me with a number of challenges. First of all I had to choose a proper format to present my questions that would not be to time consuming to the person I wanted to interview. I did an e-mail questionnaire and contacted a local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field biologist and arrange to have them complete my questionnaire and e-mail it back to me. After having found a willing candidate I needed to adapt my original Research Paper outline questions to a more regional application (i.e. Ask questions if global warming has or has not had any affect in their professional opinion on our region or local climate). Here is an example of some of the questions. When asked if Global Warming is a real threat his reply stated "(Not as far as I can tell, climate changes from year to year and weather cycles have always played a role in our local climate." Another example is the Rocky Mountain Region getting warmer? His reply stated in summary that there had been a warming trend in the past few decades but that was not uncommon and those trends were beginning to show signs of change. Snowfall in our area has increased steadily over the last five years and water shortages in summer months have been declining. Is Global warming worse than other problems? Global warming has it’s negative effects based on the needs of the population, but as a whole the climate seems to be within expected normal ranges based on historical data. Air pollution in our area is a far greater contributor to plant and animal life than global warming. The evidence can be seen in the slow death of trees and shrubs along roadways that have choked out oxygen supply and increased temperatures along roadways. That is one reason the BLM has begun strict limitations to off road motorized vehicles. I asked thirty questions that I thought were most relevant to this climate and the rocky mountain region. For the most part the questions were answered supporting natural climate change and weather patterns, there was nothing I found in the questionnaire answers that lead me to believe that Global Warming, as defined by activists, was playing any significant role in the climate and overall temperature of Western Colorado.

Journal Entry #12 (Week 9)

Bedford Bibliographer
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/bbibliographer/default.asp?uid=0&rau=0

Field Research Update (Week 9)

Everything is slowly starting to come together. I have a bit of a panic feeling not being a little further ahead of this project but it takes time to gather and organize all of the information. Organizing is the most difficult. The Bibliography is going to be a challenge. I have had no more response to my on line survey so I guess I will scrap that and go with the interview I did via e-mail with a biologist with the Bureau of land Management. Not sure what else I can do except maybe incorporate the response to my survey I did get and add it in a generalized statement about public opinion.

New entry week 9 (To be Continued)