Sunday, December 12, 2010

Final Corrections

I hope everyone is doing well.  The presentations I thought went pretty well, I was really nervous especially reading my poems.  But overall I think everything went well.  Our paper is due in less than two days, I am just making the last corrections.  I'm very scared about this because it is a huge part of our grade.  The main thing that I am focusing on is reconnecting all of my information to my thesis.  Analyzing my paper a lot more is really helping my paper, also making my writing "less wordy"!!

GOODLUCK EVERYBODY!!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Final Paper

I am one of the nine people left that still has to present.  I shortened my powerpoint a lot since I have wrote two poems, so hopefully my presentation will go by quick. 
Our final draft for our research paper is due on a week from today, and I have made a lot of progress.  I am doing the best that I can since it is such a big part of our grade!
Hope everyone is well.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Presentations

I am lucky that I didn't get picked to present on Tuesday, I had my presentation done, but my presentation wasn't as long as I think it needed to be.  At least this is how I feel after watching only 5 presentations!! I've made my presentation a bit longer now.  Also I am continuing to work on our final paper we have!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Paper Guidelines

I'm truly thankful that we now have paper guidelines, this is going to help with my paper a lot.  I need to make more thesis more specific, and something less obvious.  I also have to do a better job on focusing everything back to community.  I was wondering how everybody else did that and if they had any suggestions for me?  It would be greatly appreciated.  P.S.  Sucks if you didn't go to class today!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, I unfortunately didn't get to spend all weekend with my family because I had to leave with the soccer team to North Carolina for our game.  Now that I'm home it is back to reality; and reality is that I need to get my presentation done, and I also need to work hard to improve my paper. Just a couple more weeks left in the semester, I will enjoy winter break a lot more knowing that I finished strong :)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Presentations

What days again are we doing the presentations in class?  It is not on the syllabus it just says the end of the semester. 

Anyways I'm trying to think of something creative to do for my project, I don't want it to be boring and I want it to be creative.  Is everybody just doing powerpoints???

A lot of work to do

As expected, my paper wasn't that good.  I have a lot to do on it to get a good grade.  I'm going to have to put a lot of time and effort into this because it definitely needs some work. 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Book Review

I did procrastinate on this and now I am paying for it.  I should have just wrote it right when I finished the book because I am having a hard time remembering everything that happened.  I'm doing my book review on Reo Joe.  But, it is only 2 pages double spaced so it shouldn't be too bad.

Almost there....not

We turned in the rough draft but we still have a lot of work to do.  The end of the semester in near but not as close as I once thought.  We still have a book review due, and our presentations, and the final draft...ahhhh.  Hope everybody didn't procrastinate, or these last couple of weeks will suck!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Not done yet...

Our rough drafts are in...hopefully, but the end seems so far away!  We have our book reviews due, then we have our presentations, and then we have to make sure that our final copy is PERFECT since it is worth so much of our grade.  Procastination kills, and time management is the biggest lesson I've learned my first semester in college.  Wow

Monday, November 15, 2010

More than 15 pages...?

I feel like I have a lot of material and information, and I feel like my papaer will definitely end up being more than 15 pages.  On the requirements it says 12-15 pages, but I really don't want to cut out any of my research because I feel like it all fits toghether nicely.  Would we get marked down for having a paper over 15 pages??  I find it hard to cut stuff out, and really I don't want to cut out material that I worked hard to get haha.

Troubles...

I was not in class Thursday because I was in Pennsylvania for the BigTen tournament.  I was wondering if anyone could maybe fill me in on anything big that I might have missed?

Also, I am writing my rough draft right now, and I am having real troubles with my opening paragraph.  I don't have a way to really get the readers attention I guess.  I've decided I'm going to skip the introduction and write it when I'm done with the rest of the paper.  Hopefully then I will be able to come up with something.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Alarm

I am not good at setting alarms is what I am figuring out.  I've missed two classes so far this semester, and this is all due to me setting my alarm at 7pm instead of 7am.  Frustrating, especially because going to class really does help with our paper.  So people, really you should go to class because it does help a lot especially for this class, and set your alarm right! That's all :)

Outline

We did an outline in class a while ago, I have started my rough draft.  I just wanted to put my outline on the blog and possibly get some feedback.  This is a very rough outline, but I think I have a good set up.  Let me know what you think.

Introduction
Thesis - Main argument.
People that come from completely different backgrounds and experiences can come together when sharing a common goal. 
Still need a hook/way to catch the readers attention

Background Paragraph
Which immigrants were moving into Grand Rapids at the time
Why these people immigrated
Birds of Passage
Amounts of immigrants in the furniture company
What else is going on at this time, bigger picture
Differences in culture
Badges of Identity

Problems
Working conditions
Working laws?
Paternalism, assimilation, family feel, "Moral economy"
Increase in tension
Company philosophy/beliefs, coorporate welfare, government contracts

Strike!
Roles of men, women, and children and how that changed
Who organized the strike? Who leads the strike?
Different cultures coming together
Struggles
Vigalantism
Both sides of the story
Who didn't join in on the strike and why?

Impact and after years
How strike changed...
people
community
furniture company
economy
culture

Conclusion
Re-state thesis and main argument
Want to leave readers thinking, not quite sure how to end the paper just yet

REMEMBER TO FOCUS ON THE MAIN POINT OF THE CLASS, COMMUNITY!!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Newspapers

I've been to the Library of Michigan twice now and it has been a great help.  The newspapers that they had available for me was perfect!  It helped so much, the amount of articles in the paper was overwhelming, but you can never have too much information.  It talks about a strike that happened and people getting arrested and meetings.  All of this information will help me greatly, I'm really nervous about the paper, I feel like it i so long!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I think I may have a topic!!!!!

I was just on google, and I typed in "Dutch Industries In Grand Rapids, MI" and I found something that very might end up being my topic!!

Please read this and let me know what you guys think, It isn't very long at all but I think it shows some potential!

I'm either going to do this topic, or something where soccer had a big impact because that is basically my life.  I hope to get some feedback, thank you so much!!!

http://www.jstor.org/pss/20148725

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Topic???

I am still trying to figure out what my topic is going to be.  I really don't have a particular interest in a certain time frame or part of History.  In general, I like history but their isn't anything in particular.  My grandparents are from the Netherlands and were there during the WWII era, so I was thinking that maybe it would be best for me to do something like that.  But I still have no idea.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thursday, September 23, 2010

About Me

I was having difficulty doing this blog, for some reason I couldn't get it to work.  So this is my first blog.  I am 18 years old and a freshman at MSU.  I've grown up around here my whole life and I live real close so I am commuting.  I play for the MSU Mens Soccer team so that along with school takes up all of my time.  I have one older sister who is going to Saginaw Valley State University to become a doctor.  Since we have been in class awhile now I guess I'll just talk about the class.  This class scares me to death because I still don't know what community or industry I want to do, or even a time frame.  I feel really behind because I joined the class late and I have missed class because I was gone for soccer.  School in general is really starting to stress me out to the max.  It is very hard to balance my time right with playing a collegiate sport and playing soccer, this first semester as a freshman is a real kick in the butt.