Blog Assignment 7

I began preparing for my essay by finding quotes that connected the two sources to Nye. I picked out the quotes that caught my attention and found where they were discussed in Nye's book. I tried to find a connection or common theme between all three books and find the key points that all three authors shared an opinion on. Some critical questions I used when reading were questions from Nye's beginning chapters where he asks if technology is making us safer, or hurting us. Is it affecting our culure? How is it impacting our lives for better or for worse. I tried to engage these questions by thinking of real life examples of how technology was created to help us, but ended up creating more problems. I also though of examples of how technology has changed the average every day Americans life.
Once again I really enjoyed peer editing this time around. Its very helpful to see the different approaches and ways which other students chose to approach this essay. It was also great to get feed back so quickly.
I found that it is very important to quote all your sources in a research paper. By accurately quoting your sources, the reader can resort to these sources if they want a better understanding of what you were trying to say. In a research essay it is very important that you dont misquote anything, because it discredits your paper if you quote something wrong and your reader then goes to your source and finds that you are not a very reliable source and writer. I think the hardest part in a research paper is being able to incorporate other authors views, while still having your own voice. It is easy to get caught up in what they say, and lose track of what your initial thought was. You want to make sure your research paper is different and takes a different view of the topic rather than just rewording someone elses book. My main difficulty in composing my paper was refraining the quotes and putting it into my own words. It is hard to reword something when it is already so well written and clearly stated. I also found it hard tying all three sources together because they took several different approaches to different topics.