In English 121, formerly known as Writing 121, I researched for quite a large amount of time doing research. A large portion of the research was combing over the internet in pursuit of a viable topic. Hours were spent reading articles that led me to other articles and topics. In addition to reading through the heaps of articles I managed to find about the topic I was researching, I was analyzing the sources. Their credibility tested using the methods demonstrated in the library. In the course of taking English 121 my research skills were greatly developed.
Finding useful information while doing research has been difficult. The amount of articles on the internet make finding good sources a long process. Before this class I struggled with finding usable information while reading through long-winded articles or academic journals. In this course we discussed how to have a more narrow view with topics. Narrowing the focus while finding search terms has been useful. Searching a single word would lead to being given thousands of articles, but If I was more specific in my
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The idea is easy to grasp but in practice it can be confusing. Going into English 121, I was aware of citing sources using MLA. Easybib is not a difficult website to use. Even if I was a master of copying and pasting a link into a website, I did not exactly know how to write a citation. Something I learned in this class was the wonder that is Purdue Online Writing Lab. While it might be tempting to use a citation machine to show my knowledge in copying and pasting, using OWL is a better alternative. The website shows how to do the citations rather than generating one. In this course I learned how to not only write a works cited page, but I also finally mastered in text citations. After a few years of seeing a red pen on my in text citations, I have discovered the mistake that led to my downfall. The citation is inside the sentence. Not outside.