Kiara's ENG101 Blog

I need more practice on MLA works cited pages. It does not confuse me but I would like to be able to do my works cited page without needing to look back and forward at the power point slide. I know the steps and rules of a works cited page I am just not comfortable with them yet. The MLA format of the essay part I understand completely. I also understand the formatting of the MLA works cited page just the order of everything is confusing and hard to memorize.

"College students often struggle to balance school work with demands of their everyday life". I agree with the above statement. College students often have more than just school work to focus on outside of class. Some students are active participants in extracurricular activities such as sports, clubs, and sororities or may have an important role outside of school such as being a parent or caregiver. Students may also be active in their community doing volunteer work or working a job. College courses are more demanding than previous high  school classes so some students may be struggling with class work then when they get home have a hard time managing their study time. College gives students a lot more freedom than high school so students have to learn time management skills and study skills.

Social media is detrimental to our face-to-face iterations with strangers. I went to a non traditional high school where we didn't have our phones except for at lunch. The school was small but we all knew each other by name and a little bit of everyone's story. This is because during our free time, at P.E. and in class we all talked to each other rather than scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. In class we had vibrant group discussions because we were all engaged without our phones to tempt us. At P.E we came up with new games and had competitions all the time. In our free time we would talk about our classes, jobs, or what we planned on doing after class that day. All of which would be impossible if we had our phones with us, at lunch for example, we would all be on our phones because it was the one time of day we got them so the cafeteria was actually quiet because we were all just checking what we missed throughout the morning on social media.

A best friend should support you, inspire you, and spread positive energy. I believe these are the most important traits a good friend should have because they push you to be a better person. Having a friend support you can be encouraging when you feel like your slipping behind on your goals because they'll help you get back on track and keep rooting for you even if you do fall behind a bit. Having friends who inspire you is important because they set a good example for you to follow. Having a good role model to look up to can keep you on track to meeting your goals and help you become a better example for your peers who may look up to you. Finally, having positive friends is important to maintaining your own positive vibe. If your friends are negative that negativity will rub off on your attitude and effect your performance negatively as well.

I have seen many acts of kindness so to choose the best one is hard however, i can think of the best act of kindness i have seen recently. The other day my mom, my sister and I went to Walmart. On the way out of the store back to the car my mom went to put the cart away and she found a wallet somebody left in a cart. She immediately brought it into the store to the customer service area. On the way back in she looked in it to see whose it was and along with the owners ID she saw debit cards, credit cards, and a couple of hundred dollar bills inside, there was also a case of ear pods attached to the wallet. I personally would have went ahead and took at least a hundred dollar bill and maybe the ear pods but my mom was very kind to bring the wallet into the store without taking anything.

We haven't gotten to do a peer revision yet in ENG 101, but here are some of the aspects of the process I look forward too.  In past peer revisions I haven't been required to ask specifics questions about my work for my peer to look into, I'm looking forward to getting to do that and seeing how it helps my essay. Of course in any other paper I've done I've read it out loud so i know that helps in finding mistakes one might overlook when reading the paper in their mind. I hope to get a partner who will give me good, helpful feedback rather than a partner who Isn't really engaged in the process. Overall i think the peer revision guide we'll be following is going to really help in making my paper the best it can be.

The most frustrating part of writing for me is the introduction paragraph and concluding paragraph. I find it difficult to not dive right into what should be in my body paragraphs in my introduction. With the conclusion feel like I am just restating what I said in my body rather than drawing the paper to an end. In research papers it is a lot easier to get these done but in essays like "this I believe" it is a lot harder.  I know to put background information in the introduction paragraph but I often find myself at a dead end when it’s not a paper I can put the history of an event or person in the introduction. With plenty of practice and reading other people’s essays I am sure I can get more comfortable with my introduction and conclusion paragraphs.

When I think of my grandmother I think of hard work. She came to America from Jamaica with very little and four children to take care of. From there she worked excruciatingly long hours enduring terrible treatment to provide for and create a better life for her kids. Today she owns her own business, a nursing home, that is very successful and has been going strong since before I was even born. Some of her patients have been there for as long as I’ve known her even. For years on end she wakes up everyday to care for her patients and herself, she never even complains. As time has went on she’s accumulated more patients with varying needs and the patients she’s had there for the past almost two decades are needing more and more of her help to take care of them. She continues to get up and feed them, bathe them, and even help them use the restroom everyday and that hard work she’s doing inspires me to work as hard as her everyday.