MY LAST BLOG POST EVER (or for a while at least)!!!

Yay! I'm done with this blog!
One less thing to keep up with!

I have to make this a real post, so I wanted to talk about the area I feel that I have strengthened during this course. That area would be using APA format. Until this term I have not had to use APA format, I was always taught the MLA format. This transition was not a welcomed one on my end at first. It took me 10+ years to learn how to properly use MLA format, and stupid me thought that it was all I would need to know, WRONG. MLA format actually makes more sense as far as it's reference layout and the in text citations, but it's just such a pain to learn something new. But between this class and my other class, where my professor is a stickler that everything has a reference (giving me lots of practice using APA format), I think I've done a good job acclimating to this new format for citation. I really wish Kaplan had sent me the textbook for this class, it would have made things much easier! Now that I've done the legwork I think APA format will be easier from here on out, but it's just too bad I wasted so many years using when in the end I would need to know MLA for my career. C'est la vie, now I know both citation formats!

Can I say it again? YAY MY BLOG IS OVER!!! :)

It wasn't terrible, I didn't mind it. Free-writing is fun, but only when you have time for it. Maybe sometime in my future I will revisit the blog world, but I definitely am looking forward to a vacation from mandatory writing for a few months!

Goodbye Everyone! Good luck & May God Bless You!

Has this class improved my writing?

Hmm...I'm not sure if this class has IMPROVED my writing. If anything I'm more educated on scientific paper writing, so I guess that's an improvement. This class was difficult for me because I'm not used to the style of writing that we are doing for the final paper. I tend to either write with lots of creativity and freedom, or very cut and dry technical. This paper has challenged me, I was surprised at the among of negative feedback on my first draft. Every first draft will be full of critiques which I am willing to accept and accommodate, but I figured I knew what my strengths and weaknesses were, guess not. One piece of feedback I received was that my paper was too FYI, like writing to inform on a general topic, and no specific enough and opinionated. This pretty much means I need to re-write my entire paper! So maybe an answer to the question would be no, it's made it worse! If anything I feel less confident in my writing skills and definitely a little bit overwhelmed at the task of rewriting my entire paper.....

A Blog about Blogging....

This blog is my first experience with blogging and although I think the concept is useful, I would not choose to continue blogging in the future, unless required as part of a grade. It's not that I don't think blogging is useful, but it's not useful for ME.

I think that the point of blogging is expressing yourself. Everyone is different about how they want and need to express themselves. Years ago I would have been absolutely in love with the idea of blogging, it's like an online journal! I was the queen of journaling, always writing down my feelings and ideas. I also enjoyed writing poetry quite a lot and participated in online poetry forums. But I just sort of out grew that whole phase of my life.

Now I would much rather TALK with someone about my feelings and ideas in person than write them down in the off chance that someone will comment, or just write them to get them out of my head. I think that this has a lot to do with my relationship. I would much rather talk to my fiance or my sister, whom I can tell ANYTHING. I think that I'm very fortunate to have people to talk and share with and that for others who do not have that kind of support in their lives, blogging may provide sort of an anonymous support system and allow your voice to be heard when it otherwise would not.

I also find it incredibly hard to keep up with all of the different methods of communication now a days. Email, text messages, facebook etc, it's just too much for me! Give me ONE method of communication and I can manage, but when I've got texts on my phone, emails at my personal and school email addresses, and phone calls to return and facebook to keep updated...the last thing I want is a blog to deal with!

New Year

As much as I love the Holidays, I have to say THANK GOD THEY ARE OVER! It's been WAY too challenging for me to focus on schoolwork with so many other distractions. I know my last blog post was about the same thing, I guess it's the biggest thing on my mind right now.

I'm totally caught up in my Medical Terminology class, thanks to getting full points for my seminar & discussion last week since Kaplan was on vacation :) gotta love it! I'm not sure about Kaplan sometimes, it seems the academic polices and the professor's policies don't always go hand in hand, it can be sort of confusing! I'm working so hard to get caught up in this Composition class, I really wish I had received my transfer credit for this class! I've already taken it, but because my other school didn't break it into CC 1 and CC2 they made me take 2 over again. UGH. I don't dislike writing, but I'm way too picky, and I'll spend TOO MUCH TIME on a paper that isn't worth it. I just hold myself to really high standards, which works out well for me most of the time, but times like this I think it's biting me in the behind.

Well anyways, it's a new year, 2010 holy cow! So its my resolution to do as well as I can in my classes. I guess that was my resolution anyways, but now it's official, I want to get no less than a B+ in both of my current classes, and hopefully A's in my classes next term. I think I would have had A's this term too if I didn't let myself get so distracted with the Holidays. I'm really excited about my next 2 classes, A & P 1 and Pharmacology. I think they will be interesting and really useful in my current job and future career!

Bring on the new year, I'm ready for a change (...and NOT B.O.'s version of change) !! :)