Mosaic: The Family Research Assignment

Throughout this semester, I have learned multiple issues concerning my English 1301 online class. I have learned various writing techniques and peculiarities of MLA, APA formatting, citation norms, and an accurate use of sources. After taking this class, I am pleased to say that now I can not only differentiate MLA and APA formats, but also write papers using them.

We have learned about exploratory essays and I chose the topic “Why can’t the drinking age be 18 instead of 21”? We had to research our topic and create a bibliography based upon the sources that we found that would help us in our argumentative essay. Citation was something you use frequently making sure you site when use a direct sentences or quote from any source. It’s also important because you want to make sure you don’t plagiarize and risk failing the class. I learned about the style of my paper which my Professor requested MLA format, 12 font and Times Roman.

Though her sons are over the age of 21, Jane sets rigid house rules, curfew times to her children and imposes a great deal of disciplinary actions when disobeyed. They practiced the traditional Chinese culture wherein the eldest or the head of the household has the final say in everything that goes on. Her sons follows her rules with no questions asked. It can be inferred that she is domineering and wants control of her sons even if they are on their way to seek independence and live their life on their own. She wants a say in every aspect or decision that her sons will make and she actually can be defined as overprotective stage mother.

The Family Crucible is a story about the Brice family who is recommended by Claudia’s psychiatrist to go to family therapy due to the fact that she has not been making any progress in individual psychotherapy. The Brice family comes in to meet with Dr. Carl Whitaker and Dr. Augustus Napier, who co-facilitate family therapy throughout the entirety of the book.

While reading The Family Crucible, the authors made it feel like I was watching a life-time television series. There were several high points and low points during the family therapy session that left me unsure of how the show would end. This book takes you on a journey using family counseling to help a family heal and communicate better with one another. I thought it was interesting how this systematic therapy took place in a time where therapy was looked at as taboo. Many times in that era family therapy was not an option. The main focus was on the family member with the issue and not on the parents or other family members. In the book the authors used different theories and approaches during the counseling sessions which were quite interesting. This process after time enabled the family to look at the journey they were on in order to understand how the family, as a whole, should function.

In English 111, the citation style taught to students is the MLA format, whereas in Humanities courses a student will use APA formatting style for papers. This was difficult for me to remember the differences between the two styles. I became so accustomed to implying the MLA citation skills on papers that when I needed to turn in a paper for my Humanities I had to focus and be aware of the APA formatting styles and not employee the MLA

The last writing project I did was an Argumentative. I choose to write and argue about the television and its effects on children. What the consequences are on playing violent/aggressive video games in young ages. Using credible sources and prove by evidence I could convince my reader about my opinion. In this paper I had to be fare and show both sides of the subject to give the reader a reliable opinion. The most important thing I learned was how to use all the sources and present them in the text. Using MLA format was something new and different for me. I realized the importance of presenting the sources in the correct format to keep the high credibility in my paper. I also understood that the MLA-format is very useful for paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting in my text.

Stephan, 35 male, married a young women who was died of cancer 1 year after bearing their second child. Stephan is now a single primary carer of these two children a girl aged 11 and a boy aged 9. He works full time at a high school to pay for one child’s schooling and the other child’s carer at home as well as medical needs e.g wheelchair. The youngest child has a severe type of autism which prevents him from attending school therefore needing a part-time carer at home. Different kinds of symptoms this child experiences may affect the child’s home life such as: Delay in learning how to speak or doesn’t talk at all, difficulty communicating needs or desires may affect the

During my high school career, the structure of writing assignments was not extensively crucial instead the content of the essay was to a greater extent more significant to my teachers. Initially, the thought of citations seemed fairly easy but now that either MLA or APA styles are required for almost every writing assignment in college the process seems complex. During English 1313, I was introduced to APA but at a very general level. However, I realized this semester that APA style is extremely detailed. Nevertheless, both citation styles share the requirement of a hanging indent, double space and a page created specifically for the references (APA) or works cited (MLA). I believe the process flows smoother when you know the citation and the

Before getting accepted to attend the Ohio State University, I took several English courses in high school, gaining five English credits in the process. One of my English credits was gained through a program called Mosaic, a humanities based program that focuses on project-based learning instead of exams. These projects were mainly in the form of research papers and personal essays. An example of the research papers in the program is the Family Research assignment. The Family Research assignment was a twenty-five page novel regarding familial ancestry. For this assignment, it was necessary to have multiple MLA formatted sources; having one of the sources be from an interview. The assignment was long and tedious, but it taught me about how to cite my work to avoid plagiarism, how to write long papers, how to find reliable sources and how to

During my milk and OTEC essays, I learned how to correctly use citations and express ideas through analyzation

In high school I got the opportunity to be involved in honors and AP English classes. Throughout those classes I was able to learn how to annotate, format (is key to writing a good essay), proper citations, personal words should not be added such as “I”, “we”, “us” “our”. To annotate was to skim over and just write what you understand about the text in the margin. If you could have the format of the “beginning, middle, and end” then writing a two page/1,000 word minimum did not apply to grading. In writing a good essay, proper citations were a big chunk of writing an essay. Though, I never learned how to properly cite in the time given to learn it because I was not as advanced as other students. When writing an essay we were also never allowed to use personal words because that meant it would take away from the meaning and credibility of your essay. In my opinion writing in high school

Beforehand, lots of my writings were freely bounded, meaning that they required more thought to the quality of our ideas. Those classes didn’t require me to follow the rules of MLA format as strictly as this class does. I find this course to be very helpful because it gave us a heads-up as to what to expect in college. I also learned to be more professional with my writing and for the first time ever, I learned to be more courteous to my reader than to myself. Instead of thinking that only my teacher will be the one reading my essays, I had in mind an audience who does not know me. This forced me the respect the audience by citing my sources and explaining things that they may not know

Reading and writing were not my strongest qualities throughout high school, but in the tenth grade at West Morgan High School I built the foundation for being able to write a mediocre essay. A man by the name of Shannon Shaw was my teacher; he is the reason I have the tools to construct a genuine essay. Another year passed and I decided to dual enroll at Calhoun Community College for a history course, and because of this it dramatically perfected the methods Mr. Shaw had taught me. My final year of high school I encountered my first actual research paper in economics class, which was an absolute horror show for me. If it was not for this class and the instructor Melanie Holiday, I would have absolutely no idea how to cite sources or do something as simple as research for an assigned topic.

“Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.” Many friendships are formed over a length of time with a bond stronger than anything; family is a bond between individuals, not only a blood bond but an emotional bond. Family isn't always blood, Ashley and Elsa went through many milestones in their lives since that day, family is the group of people who mold and shape you to the person you are, one of the most complicated relationships of the human brain to comprehend.