Week Four

Goals:
My goals for this week consisted of trying to finish up my research process. So everyday in class I would try to read and gather information from at least one or two sources. I was able to sort of accomplish this goal, but I did not get a chance to annotate all my sources. As for my works cited, I did not get to finish that in class, but I was able to get at least 5 sources that are properly cited, but I wanted to have 10 citations.
Next week on Monday I plan on having my works cited page completed and done as well as my working cited page done. But on Thursday I plan to have my note system done and my basic outline of my outline done. But for my works cited page, I plan on using Noodle Tools to upload and create my individual citations for my works cited, as it is easier and helpful to use. For my note taking, I will also use Noodle Tools notecards to keep track of my annotations. As the notecards allow for a lot more room to write on compared to the traditional paper note cards. Also, the notecards on Noodle Tools help you keep track of which websites the annotations came from and allow for me to jot down some little notes I wanted to remember about the quote.
My schedule for next week:
Monday:
1. Turn in rough draft works cited page.
2. Read and annotate one to two sources (In class or at home).
Tuesday:
1. Turn in working work cited page.
2. Read and annotate one to two sources (In class or at home).
Wednesday:
1. Read and annotate two to three sources (In class or at home).
Thursday:
1. Turn in my notes system.
2. Read and annotate one to two sources (In class or at home).
Friday:
1. Turn in preliminary outline
2. Finish note taking/annotations
3. Start detailed outline
Weekend:
1. Start or Finish detailed outline
2. Start writing a bit of my rough draft of my Research Paper

Activities:
This week I was able to accomplish my research and find at least three sources. But I was only able to find my sources, read them, and gather notes all on Monday and Tuesday. The other days this week I was not able to because we did not have class or we had quizzes to take. Also after school I did not have a lot of time to read all my sources and take notes, as my sources are quite lengthy and packed full of information.

Problems:
This week I was not able to gather as many sources and notes as I wanted to because of timing and also because my sources were quite lengthy, packed full of information. But I hope this weekend to finish up my whole research paper process as well as finishing up my citations. Fortunately, I was able to at least find three sources instead of just one or zero.

Reflection:
My research process this week was not worse or better than I predicted or expected. I planned out last week to have all my sources read and my citations done, but time did not allow this to happen. As I usually can not concentrate on reading and taking notes in class, I tried to leave the majority of my research process to do at home. But sometimes when I would try to research on JSTOR, it would not work at home or I would have trouble finding information on my author and the two books I read. Also I noticed that my author, Walter Mosley, is not a famous author well known around the world like many of the classical American Authors other students are doing. So my research will take a little longer because I will have to spend more time looking for sources on his works. But so far in my research process, I have found JSTOR and GVRL to be quite helpful in finding sources that relate to my authors work. Also these sources have a lot of lengthy information on my author and his works, which makes it especially helpful in the research process, but hard to find time to read all of the documents. Though I am having some successes and setbacks with my research process, I am starting to notice that my topics and my main theme might change from my themes I had chosen when I did my question sets. As I am noticing with all my other sources, there shows a common theme of violence and racial discrimination but I was instead more focused on racial discrimination and also I did not even consider violence as an important theme within Mosley's novels. So I am quite glad to have researched thoroughly on his books to see what the main themes are to others people and see how I can try to incorporate those ideas as well as my ideas in my research paper.

Have a rainy weekend!

Until next time,
Zain

Week Three

Goals: My goals for this week consisted of finishing my annotations and notebook notes for my two books by Wednesday morning. As my notebook notes and annotations were due that morning so I had plenty of time during my four day weekend and Tuesday to finish them up. But I planned on starting my research process on Wednesday during class, but unfortunately I only had time to learn how to research. So, I was only left with researching for Thursday and Friday this week. Next week, I plan on finishing my research and citations for both my books. But I will try to have at least one or two resources read and cited on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, but on Friday I will have my full notes and citations done. Which in turn, I will have the weekend free of finishing up or starting my citations and notes for my research paper.

Activities: I achieved both my goals for this week, which were to finish my annotations and notebook notes as well as start my research process. I was able to get through one and one-half sources but I didn't get as far as I wanted to in my research process this week, due my changing of classes, and only two classes of research.

Problems: My research process this week was slow, as I did not find a lot of time or websites that were on Walter Mosley on the databases. Plus I am also still trying to figure out how to use the data bases through our library. I also was swarmed with other homework and finishing my annotations and notes for my two books earlier this week that I had trouble finding time to research as well.

Reflection: This week I didn't have a lot of challenges other than finishing my annotations and my notes for my two books. But I also had to finish my other homework and figure out my schedule which screwed my homework scheduling and time for other activities. But for the research process, I felt that I didn't get as much time or research done as I wanted to this week. As I only was able to read and highlight one text book source from our library and read half of a website source. For next week, I hope to finish all my citations and research as well as have a better idea on how to answer my question sets that I finished two weeks ago. Fortunately, I had some successes this week with finally finishing my annotations and notes for my research paper books as well as finding some sources on my author. As I thought before the research process began, that my author would not have any sources because he is not a famous author or really well known for his books in my opinion. But this week I was lucky enough to see that my doubts were not true and I successfully finished the first major part of this research paper process! Next week I am looking forward to finishing my research for my paper and having a clearer idea on how to structure my paper.

Hope you all enjoy the sunshine!
-Zain

Week Two

Goals: My goal for this week was to finish my research paper questions as well as finish my annotations and journal notes for my second book, All I Did Was Shoot My Man. 

Activities: This week I was able to finish my research paper questions, but I have not had the time during the two weeks to fully finish my research paper annotations and journal notes for my second book. Instead, I will be finishing my annotations and journal notes this weekend.

Problems: The last two weeks have been quite hectic, as I had just come back from a winter break trip from Africa so I had been jet lagged for the first couple days. As a result of that, I was not able to do all of my homework for my other classes during the time most kids in Seattle would do their homework. Which meant that annotating and doing the journal notes for my second book would be quite a task for me, which was why this weekend is the only time I have for annotating and doing my journal notes.

Reflection: This week has been quite hectic both in struggling to find time to finish my research paper books annotations and journal notes as well as find out what my topic of my paper will be about. As I could have tried to spread my time out easily with trying to finish my annotating and journal notes but I just was busy with other tasks, both in school and out of school. But when finding out what my topic(s) of my research paper, that was quite a struggle at first, but after spending a couple nights and class time working on looking through my journal notes, my books, and some online sources, I was able to narrow down to three topics that appropriately suited both books. Plus these three topics are quite vague in a sense that they include other aspects that I thought would be the main topic, when in truth they are only a sub-part of the overarching three main topics. But in regards to finishing my annotations and my journal notes for my second book, I only have this weekend to finish it, which I believe is enough time of locking myself away in my room to finish all 277 pages of annotations and 326 pages of journal notes. Even though I regret having to result to that plan of finishing my second book, it is the only time I have left and the only option I have left. But for any of my other tasks that I have for my research paper, I will try to get them done ahead of time so that I don't have to face another option like this ever again.

On a side note, I hope you are enjoying the weekend and the fog...yikes...But lets hope for a win from the Seahawks!

Until Next Week,
Zain

Week One

Goals: My goal for next week is to finish my annotations in my second research paper book, All I Did Was Shoot My Man, and start my journal for this book as well.

Activities: I was able to annotate half of my second research paper book,All I Did Was Shoot My Man, as well as finish my journal for my first book, Devil In A Blue Dress. 

Problems: I didn't have any major problems with my research process this week, mainly because we have just settled back into the school routine since we were all on winter break. Also this week we had a lot of class work on our semester reflections as well as received our research paper requirements. But I only had problems with finding time to annotate some of my second book, because many of my teachers have been giving me small assignments that are time consuming for me. But I was able to fix this problem by utilizing my two free blocks in the library to annotate my second book. 

Reflection: I feel like my research process right now has been quite slow and not really as hard as I thought it would be. But this week we haven't really had much to do other than finish annotating our books or reading our books. The only problem I have had this week was trying to find time to annotate my book because over the break I had finish reading both books as well as I had annotated and finished my note taking for my first book. But in truth, I am quite scared for next week because I have no idea what my questions will be for both books because my books are so similar but different at the same time. It sounds complicated, I know, but my books are bot mysteries and they are both books that show racism and inequality in America today which I bet is one of my topics. I unfortunately do not know what my other topics are because I have to have more than one topic. But I am quite happy to have finished one books' annotations as well as notes because that had been looming over my head all throughout the fall semester. I am also quite happy with how I have been utilizing my class time to work on my research paper as well as how I have been completing my tasks for my research paper process. 

But Overall, I am hoping for the best for the rest of my research time and I SURVIVED THE FIRST WEEK! :)