Sunday, January 27, 2013

Blog #3



The concern this week for me would have to be from the paraphrasing exercise.  I find it very difficult to read something and then write it on my own without using the same words. One other thing I had trouble with was the vocabulary. Before I took the test it was hard to pick out just a few words from several sentences. Is there a certain website that the definitions come from? I did well on the test but the entire time I was stressed out.


I learned so much about the library database. I really wish I would have known about it a long time ago. It would have made research papers so much easier. I live in Paragould so I have never used the library because it is too far to drive but now I am so happy to know that I can use the library from home.


Another thing I have learned is about run on sentences. Anytime I have ever written a paper I get points counted off for this problem.  I learned that a run-on is two or more complete sentences written as one sentence. It has too much information for a single sentence, and it just keeps going. A run on is not a fragment. A fragment is an incomplete thought. A run-on has too many complete thoughts. When a sentence has two thoughts that are complete, they can be properly connected in three easy ways: period, semicolon, and a Comma with Coordinating Conjunctions (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). I learned to look at the sentence length. If it is more than three lines, it could be a run-on. Also I should read my sentence out loud. If I have to catch my breath before the end, it is too long. If I get lost as I am reading the sentence, so will my audience.

2 comments:

  1. I also had trouble with the paraphrasing exercise. I found it difficult to put each paragraph in my own words without using the same words they did. I found it a little easier if I took one sentence at a time and then thought about my own sentence. Maybe if you do this it might help? I was also wondering about where to look the vocabulary words at because when I looked them up some of them didn't match what was on the test.

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  2. Amber, I'm glad that you became more familiar with the concept of a run-on, but don't forget that not all run-ons are long. You can have two very short sentences stuck together incorrectly, and they are still a run-on. You are right though; if a sentence is too long, there is a good chance that is your problem.

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