D#3, HW#2, Research Question

To narrow my research topic to a research question, I wrote down several different questions about my topic. This allowed me to think about what I wanted my question to say and what message I wanted to get across to the reader. I selected the one that seemed most appropriate, and refined it from there. I refined it by trying better words in place of the original ones, and came up with this question. Although the government of the United States of America provides welfare for their citizens, what more can be done to aid those in poverty?

D#3, HW#1, Reading Reflection

WP#3 is the actual research paper assignment. It gives you guidelines for writing the paper, and helps you understand your paper's ultimate purpose: to state your argument, state the side that you are on and why, and actions that should be taken to correct or help the issue. WP#3 also gives you tips to starting your research paper, such as outlining.

In the Bedford Researcher, chapter 3 helps you establish your research question and proposal. A research question should be straight to the point and be about your selected topic. This chapter advises you to list several questions about the issue to help you decide which question you want to focus more on. Some sample questions are shown on pages 34 and 35. After selecting your research question, the next step is to refine it to a more narrow, focused question. A research proposal is a formal presentation about your research paper. Your proposal should contain the key elements that are shown on page 42.

Chapter 4 teaches you how to compile and organize your research material. It guides you in creating a search plan that helps you determine what resources will be best, and what stategies you will use to carry out your plan. It also tells you different methods that could be used to save and organize your research material. Some of these methods include printing your information, keeping an online file, saving items to a disk, emailing the material, or using a bookmarking list such as del.icio.us. It also goes into how to create a working bibliography.

Chapter 5b it shows you how to search online databases and web search sites. It explains that a database provides information that is overall more reliable. Such as journal articles, and government documents. A web search engine, such as google, is open access to pretty much anything that is online. This makes it more difficult to find facts and solid research information. It also informs you that several government agencies use the web to distribute information, and it gives you some of the web adresses, which will be very helpful when writing my paper. This chapter also guides you in how to search online using keywords and phrases.

The webpages provided also help you to develop a great research question. The last website directs you to a pretty sweet presentation that helps you understand the purpose, context, audience, author, and topic of your research paper.

D#2, HW#7, Deadline Reflection

This week's work was extremely helpful to the overall process of writing the research paper. I was able to find several websites that are about my topic. Using the different search engines and web directories gave me a better idea of how to search in general. I now understand that this class is going to be a lot of work, but at least it's not hard work. Reading my classmates blogs helped me better understand what I needed to do for the assignments. I like being able to see where my classmates are at in the process so I know i'm not the only one finishing up my deadlines on Thursday night!
These are the people I commented to:

http://www.camlunamcc.blogspot.com - Camille, D#2, HW#4-6

http://www.courtsblog22.blogspot.com - Courtney, D2, HW#7

http://www.winterjustin88.blogspot.com - Justin, D#2, H#5

http://www.eng102blog.blogspot.com - Linda, Narrowing Topic

http://www.laceyariz.blogspot.com - Kathy, D#2, HW#7

D#2, HW#6, Annotated Bibliography

Glasmeir, Amy K. "The Nation We've Become." _Poverty in America, One Nation, Pulling Apart_. 26 Feb. 2007. Retrieved 4 Sept. 2007. < http://www.povertyinamerica.psu.edu/ >.

This article will be very useful when writing my research paper. The writer, Amy K. Glasmeier, has great opinions and views about poverty and she focuses on the issues in America. She gives statistics, and the locations of where poverty is the most predominant, which will be helpful. This article is also very current compared to other ones that I have seen. I found this article using the seach engine google.



Punpirate. "Poverty-America's Shame." _Democratic Undergound_. 19 Oct. 2002. Retrieved 4 Sept. 2007. < http://democraticunderground.com/articles/02/10/19_poverty.html >

To find this website I used the web directory Ask.com. This webpage was written by an American who was once stricken by poverty himself and he gives his point-of-view about it. He wrote this in a very real, understandable way. He wrote about the history of poverty, as well as the issue currently. This will be a useful site to connect with the readers emotions.

D#2, HW#5, Topic Reflection

I was initially interested in this topic because it is a major problem in America today. I see poverty stricken people everyday of my life - on the streets, inside fast food places, in grocery stores, everywhere. After exploring this topic a little bit, I was suprised to read that one out of every five American children live in poverty. The statistics of poverty among different locations, genders, and races in the United States was also very shocking. I feel very passionate about this topic because it's our countries citizens that are being effected so negatively. Although the government spends a lot of money on welfare programs, it spends more money on un-nessecary things. I wonder how many lives could have been saved if the money that was spent on the lizard designs and the nice brick patterns on the freeways had been spent on food or shelters for people who have no money. I was raised to always look out for the less fortunate and I guess that's why i'm so passionate about this topic. I also have personal experience with people living in poverty. A woman that I worked with in Oregon couldn't afford rent so she was forced to live out of her car. It was in the winter time, snowing, and she and her husband had to suffer through the freezing nights with no source of heat. We worked in an assisted living home and when nobody was looking she would sneak crackers out to her husband it the parking lot. That was heartbreaking to see. If there was better programs for people without money, then she, or millions of others wouldn't have to suffer.

D#2, HW#4, Narrowed Research Topic

The topic I have selected is Poverty in America. My broad topic was poverty in the world, but clustering my ideas and thoughts helped me to narrow it down to poverty specifically in the United States. I narrowed it down from poverty in general to focusing on poverty in the U.S. because there is so much of it in the world that there would be way too much to talk about. After narrowing my topic down, I used the clustering activity again to get a general idea of sub-topics that I would discuss in the paper. I also can relate more with poverty in America rather than in other countries.

D#2, HW#3, Annotated Bibliography

Weeks, Jennifer. "Fish Farming." CQ Researcher 17.27 (2007): 625-648. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. MCC Library,
Mesa, AZ. 4 Sept. 2007 < http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2007072700 >.

This article explains how a big portion of todays seafood comes from land-based farms, not the wild. Some of these fish farms are spreading diseases to the natural grown fish in the ocean because their farm fish are escaping. There are now concerns that the United States does not restrict fish importing enough and that we may be eating contaminated fish. At first this topic interested me because I love to fish, but after reading about it I am not interested at all. It may be interesting to a seafood lover, but I don't like seafood, so i'm not passionate about it.


Katel, Peter. "Illegal Immigration." CQ Researcher 15.17 (2005): 393-420. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. MCC Library,
Mesa, AZ. 4 Sept. 2007 < http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2005050600 >.

This article explains the pros and cons of illegal immigration and the laws surrounding it. This is probably the topic I will pick because it hits so close to home. It is something that I am very interested in and cross paths with on a daily basis. I may narrow it further by focusing on illegal immigration in the west, or in Arizona specifically. Or maybe i'll narow it to a specific type of illegal immigrants that are effecting the United States.


Koch, Kathy. "Hunger in America." CQ Researcher 10.44 (2000): 1033-1056. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. MCC Library,
Mesa, AZ. 4 Sept. 2007 < http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2000122200 >.

This article addresses the issues of poverty in the United States. It gives statistics and facts about the never-ending problem that many Americans face. This is a topic that I am also very interested in. This topic also hits very close to home. Poverty is something that I come across everyday when I get onto the freeway and I don't think it's fair. It may be narrowed to poverty in Arizona or poverty caused by a certain thing.