Reflecting on Questions.

For this part of the assignment we are to reflect on the highlighted part that we did in class toady.

Which color dominates?
     There was an even mix between the two colors in my essay.
Are you turning over too much of the text to your source?
      No, I don't believe so.
Are you ignoring them and rattling on too much about what you think?
      No, I have an even amount of information and my opinion. 
Or do your sources use seem appropriate to support your purpose?
       Yes, they do.
Are you taking turns paragraph by paragraph with your sources, or is your own analysis and commentary nicely blended within paragraphs, so that the information is always anchored to your own thoughts?
         Yes, it mirrors itself from one paragraph to another and it shows the information and my opinion.
Do you surround quote passages  with your own voice and analysis?
         Yes, before and after a quote I talk about the quote and explain it.
Who wins the wrestling match?
          I think that I win the wrestling match because I feel like I have more of my opinion in the essay than information from my sources.

Sharpening your point.

For the next part of our research paper, we are suppose to sharpen our thesis statement by figuring out if our topic is a value, policy, interpretation, hypothesis, or relationship. I am doing my essay from an exploratory point of view and believe that my topic is a topic of value.

Example:
Based on recent studies comparing how well disciplines teach critical thinking to college students, the evidence suggest that business programs are failing to do a good job teaching reasoning skills to their undergraduates.

Thesis:
Based on my research, the evidence strongly suggest that not giving children/juveniles who are under 18 the death penalty is more effective than treating them as an adult in a trial and giving them the death penalty.

Dialogue Time

This part of the assignment we have to have a dialogue with a person to answer questions that they may ask. It will be in two columns, one will be the question and the other will be my response(in blue).

Question 1:
Why?                                                   
  To inform people about child execution
Where?                                              
    In the U.S
Who?                        
    Children, their families and the justice system                                               
When?                                                  
 Past, Present Future
What?                                                
    Child Execution

Question 2:
What do you mean by child execution?     
 Children being put to death because of the crimes they commit

Question 3:
How do most people see this? How do you see it differently?
Most people see it as an awful thing to kill children who have not fully developed the ability to reason. I am still sorting through how I feel on the topic right now.
Question 4:
Are you kidding? I didn't know that. What else did you find out?
The United States has executed at least 19 people under the age of 18.
Question 5:
Can you give me an example.
Sure, one of the children was 16 at the time they were executed.
Question 6:
Did that surprise you?
Yes, I did not think that children would be executed.
Question 7:
What other questions does this raise?
Why it was even a loud to start happening in the first place. I know that Biblically children  were stoned to death for disobeying their parents and other things like that, but  I do not see why that was the punishment for that.
Question 8:
Who does this affect, mostly?
Mainly it affects our Justice System and the Supreme Court.
Question 9:
What should we do about this?
Well based off the research I have done I would say just to inform people about the pros and cons to executing children. I mean if they show signs of behavior that would continue them to kill people if they got out of jail then maybe it should be allowed. But, I will admit I am still working through what we should do about this topic.
Question 10:
I'm not sure I believe this. Why do you?
Well as I have stated previously, I am not sure that I believe it either. It is something that I am learning about as I work through the process of writing the paper and doing research on it.
Question 11:
What do you think we should do about it?
I think we need inform the youth of America that this is occurring and find ways to stop it. It is such a hard thing to read and understand why this is happening in the world around us. It is also going on in  other countries minus the U.S. I truly feel that it should be addresses and find another way to deal with the children that are committing these crimes.
 

For this part of our assignment we have to pick 5 sources and explain why those sources are credible and can be used in our paper. This process is called an Annotated Bibliography, it consist of the MLA citation of the site followed by a CRAAP(Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) analysis paragraph.

Holder, Eric. Attorney General. United States Department of Justice. Washington DC: , 2012. Web.

This article is a credible source for my research paper because it is written by the Unites States Department of Justice. The author’s credentials include he is the attorney general of the United States Justice System and he attended law school. The article was published in Washington D.C, in March 2012. The author’s main goal in this article is to inform about execution of juveniles. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: people that have knowledge of capital punishment and want to know more. This audience would be interested in this subject because it talks about a lot of issues within the justice system and execution and would agree with this author’s perspective on the topic. The author incorporates the following types of evidence: information based off the justice system and research done by the author and co-authors. The evidence builds creditability because it shows that it is current and has information that is valid but is also limited because it is not just about juveniles. Based on my own opinion, experiences, and research, I agree with this author because I believe he has a valid point. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it gives a lot of information that I feel will be helpful. 

Wilson, John. Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Diss. U.s Department of Justice, 2000. Washington, D.C. : Office of Justice Programs, 2000. Print.

This article is a credible source for my research because it is from the U.S Department of Justice. The author's credentials include he is the acting administrator of the U.S Department  of Justice. The article was published in Washington, D.C, in November 2000. The author's main goal in this article is to inform about juvenile/child execution. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: someone who has a background in criminal justice and wants to know more about the justice system. This audience would be interested in this subject because they want to know more about how the justice system handles juveniles/children and their executions; and would agree and disagree with this author's perspective on the topic. This evidence builds credibility because it has a lot of information on the topic but it is also limited because it has no personal accounts of executions. Based on my own opinions, experiences, and research, I agree with this author's research because I have found it in other places as well. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it has a lot of helpful information that I can use to inform the readers of my paper.

 

Lane, Charles. "5-4 Supreme Court Abolishes Juvenile Executions." Washington Post. (2005): A01. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article is a credible source for my research because it is from the Washington Post. The author's credentials include being part of the writing staff for the Washington Post. The article was published in  March 2005. The author's main goal in this article is to inform about juvenile/child execution and it being voted out for most states. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: a higher class person who cares about what is going on in the world. This audience would be interested in this subject because they are reading to see how the world is changing; and would agree and disagree with this author's perspective on the topic depending on what they think of the topic. This evidence builds credibility because it has a lot of information on how the court hearing went and a story about a child on death row but it is also limited because it does not contain a lot of outside information. Based on my own opinions, experiences, and research, I agree with this author because I think that it is good to not put a child under 16 on death row. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it has a lot of helpful information that I can use to inform the readers of my paper.

AmnAmnesty International , . "Amnesty International." Execution of Juveniles since 1990. Amnesty International, n.d. Web. 9 Nov 2013

 

 

 article is a credible source for my research because it is from Amnesty International. The author's credentials include being part of a national organization. The article was published in 2001. The author's main goal in this article is to show how many executions have taken place in the USA and other countries since 1990. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: anyone who wants to make a difference in the world. This audience would be interested in this subject because they looking for ways to make a change in the world; and would agree and disagree with this author's perspective on the topic depending on what they think of the topic. This evidence builds credibility because it is from a well know organization but it is also limited because it does not contain a lot information other than numbers. Based on my own opinions, experiences, and research, I do not agree or disagree with this author because it is a statistical article.  I think this article is important to include in my essay because it has a lot of helpful information that I can use to inform the readers of my paper to show the number of executions worldwide of children and juveniles.

Drew, Kevin. "US one of a few nations with juvenile death laws." CNN 26 JAN 2004, n. pag. Print.

 

 

This article is a credible source for my research because it is from CNN News. The author's credentials include being a member of the CNN news team. The article was published in January 26, 2004. The author's main goal in this article is to inform people about the U.S being one of few countries that have juvenile death laws. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: online news readers. This audience would be interested in this subject because they looking at the current news articles that would be up; and would probably not be sure of what to think of the author’s perspective on the topic depending on what they think of the topic. This evidence builds credibility because it gives information that I have found to be true from other sources but it is also limited because it is a short article and could use more content. Based on my own opinions, experiences, and research, I do not agree or disagree with this author because I believe in some cases it is a good thing to have in place.  I think this article is important to include in my essay because it shows how the U.S is thinking when it comes to this topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question Time

For the next part of the assignment we are suppose to come up with questions that go along with the topic that we picked from the last blog post.
1) Inquiry Question:
     What psychological issues does child execution cause in children who know that they are going to be executed?
2) Primary purpose:
     Explore: What additional questions that most interest you and might help you discover the answer to your research question?
                   What affects does children being executed have on the families of the child?
                    How do they prepare the children that are on death row?
     Argue: What theory or hypothesis about your topic are you testing? What is your tentative main claim or thesis?
                     That children should only be tried as an adult and put on death row if they murder someone and are proven guilt of the crime.
3) What, if any, prior beliefs, assumptions, preconceptions, ideas, or prejudices do you bring to this project? What personal experiences may have shaped the way you feel? Before you began developing working knowledge on the topic, what were you thinking about it? What are you thinking about it now?
       I did not have any prior beliefs on child execution, it was actually a topic that I never thought of before till recently. Personal experiences that would have shaped how I feel would be watching the news and seeing things that people do. I thought that it didn't really happen and children were not placed on death row. Now  I have found out that is not the case and children and youth are based on the crimes that they do indeed commit.             

Topics upon topics

For the next part of this assignment we are to pick 3 heading from a list words and brainstorm ideas on the three words that we pick. The topics are places, trends, things, technology, people, controversies, history, jobs, habits, and hobbies.

Step 1:
People:
child abuse
child welfare
child execution
labor laws
adoption
divorce


Jobs:
loose of
not enough
lay offs


Hobbies:
Reading
writing
drawing
dancing
signing
playing an instrument


Child execution
-what is the state law on it?
-how many children have been executed?
-is this right?
-what psychological issues does this cause?
-what causes the children to do the crime in the first place?

Rethinking Research

I'm starting an assignment for my English class today. We are to pick from a list of topics and take three minutes to write about why we think that topic is true/false and our opinion on it. The first group of topics to pick from are: You have to know your thesis before you start, You have to be objective, You can't use the pronoun I, You can use your own experiences and observations as evidence, You can us your own writing voice, You're writing mostly for the instructor, and You're supposed to use your own opinions.

Step 1: You can't use the pronoun I.
I think that is false because if you plan to give personal examples of your life in a paper, you will have to have the word I in there. If it becomes a repetitive thing I could see it being a problem unless you start your paper out with "I believe..." I feel that using the word I in a paper gives it more of your voice and helps you to get your point across without having to say one would think or one something instead of it.

For step 2, we are to pick other topic and state if you agree or disagree with it and explain why.
Step 2: People are entitled to their opinion, and no one opinion is better than another.
I agree with this statement because I believe that everyone has their own opinion and neither opinion is better than the other one. I have had many times in my life that people would think that their opinion was better than mine and that they were always right. I have also seen it happen in other cases, like in my former church for example. Everyone thought that their opinion was better than the next person and it lead to a ton of drama in the church. It was very upsetting to me because I looked up to those people.