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!

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 :)

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. 

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!!

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

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.

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!!!