Finalizing Your Paper

These following questions are evaluating what I did over this whole entire paper.

Question 1: I think you can't really say that one opinion is better than another one. Don't you agree?- Yes to a point. Just as you said, there can be more than one opinion. But there is only one write factual answer. Opinions can be right or wrong. A facts are always correct.

Question 2: Research is described as a process of discovery. What did you discover?- That you need to think out side the box when it comes to writing papers.

Question 3: What as the most challenging problem while working on your paper? How did you solve it?- Mine was finding good quality research. I fixed it by changing search phrases and words around to narrow down sources.

Question 4: What did you take away from this experience? What have you learned that you can use?- That I should put in valuable time and effort into researching my topics. And I should consider everybody that could possibly read my paper or essay.

The Wreckage of the Paper

Exercise 5.3 is examining how your essay supports the thesis of your paper. Your whole paper revolves around the thesis. Make sure there is not tons of fluff throughout the paper. Here a couple questions to be thinking about:

1. How can you prove your thesis
2. What is the problem to your solution
3. What question are you answering
4. What is the cause and effect

The Rough Draft

As you are drafting your paper you are supposed to add quotes and thoughts from other authors. But how much is your thoughts and just your thoughts?

Step 1: Get two different highlighters and your rough draft

Step 2: In one color highlight other people's thoughts and in the other highlight your thoughts

In my paper the majority is my thought. But there's a paragraph were there is mainly just other people's thoughts because I am talking about other people's opinions. And I add a piece of history in the last paragraph of my paper.

The Task At Hand

The best way to captivate a reader is by having a good opening to your essay or paper. In the following exercise, it will help you think through your opening paragraph or a paragraphs. Write three openings to your paper or essay to help you decide which one would be write for your paper or essay.

Openings:

1. The boat lands on the shore and the door swings open. Five guys rush out only to be sprayed by German bullets. The men behind them rush out trying to find cover. Only half of the men on the boat actually make it behind a bunker safe and alive. Their task is far from over, landing on the beach was just the first step. The Allied soldiers now have to take over the Normandy beaches.

2. Four men are standing around a table with a map of France and a mixture of military pictures on it. Staring at the map they all knew this invasion was a risky move. The weather was not looking promising and who knew what Hitler was up to. You could have heard a mouse squeak of how quite it was in the room. The plan to invade Normandy was finalized. The only thing was would the invasion work.

3. Today rarely do the people of the United States agree with the leaders of our country in big matters around the world. It was no different in June 1945. A big and huge decision the leaders of the US were making and not a lot of military men and common men agreed with. This decision could wipe out thousands of Allied forces and be slaughter or end the WWII. The invasion of Normandy was a decision that had to be made but was not favorable.

Your Point

As you are writing a paper, you first come up with a topic or purpose of the paper. This topic or purpose is what drives the essay or paper. In order to have a good topic or purpose you need to have a good thesis. A thesis is what sets up your paper or essay for the following points you want to prove or hit on. The following exercise will help determine a better, clear cut thesis.

5 Thesis Questions- Value, Policy, Interpretation, Hypothesis, Relationship

Hypothesis: My study and research on the Normandy Invasion, or D-Day, shows that even though a tremendous number of lives were lost the battle needed to be fought, unlike the idea that the battle was not necessary, was lucky, or was doomed to fail.

Discussing a Topic

I am writing this blog for my English Composition class to help me think through my final essay. For people who are not in my English class, this might help you think through essays or papers you have as well. This exercise is thinking through your chosen topic and preparing you how to write your essay or paper.

Step 1: Why? Where? When? Who? What?- My topic is the Normandy Invasion or also known as the D-Day invasion. It happened June 6, 1944 on the beaches of Normandy, France.

What do you mean by ( topic ) D-Day?- D-Day means the beginning of a military operation. In this case it was the military operation OVERLORD. And OVERLORD was the storming of the Normandy beaches.

How do most people see this? How do you see it differently?- Most scholars and historians see D-Day has a lucky battle that was not necessarily a battle that should have been fought. I think it was a decisive battle because helped push back the Germans and helped to prevent the movement of Communism.

Are you kidding? I didn't know that. What else did you find out?- I think D-Day helped stop the spread of Communism because the Russians were moving from the East with rapid speed. The Russians would have taken over all of Europe therefore spreading Communism.

Can you give me and example?- Take the Berlin Wall. Russia happened to make it halfway through Germany and taking control of the Eastern side of Germany, while the other Allies took control of the Western half of Germany. The Eastern side was Communist, while the Western side was Democratic.

Did that surprise you?- No because I already knew it.

What other questions does this raise?- Is it worth sacrificing thousands of lives for millions of lives?

What does this affect, mostly?- The question of morality; saving your military resources

What should we do about this?- We can't because it is a historical event

I'm not sure I believe this. Why do you?- Because I believe there was more than just a reason than just wanting to push the Germans back. The Russians would have won the war either way.

Step 2: Okay, this is all very interesting. But based on everything you've learned so far, what's your point?- My point is that D-Day was a very influential battle that was necessary and wasn't based upon luck.   

Bibliography

This post is giving our annotative bibliography. An annotative bibliography is a citing sources but describing about the source, how factual is it, how will the source help your essay, and how it will affect your audience. Below is my annotative bibliography.

Anderson, Duncan. “http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/dday_beachhead_01.shtml.” D-Day Beachhead. 17 February 2011

This article is a credible source for my research because it talks about how the Normandy Invasion was a controversial battle. The author’s credentials include a senior lecturer at Sandhurst of the War Studies Department, became Head of Department 1997, and has written several books on WWII. The article was published in 17 February 2011 on the BBC website. The author’s main goal in this article is to inform about D-Day but also persuade you into thinking it wasn’t worth fighting the battle about. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: people interested in WWII. This audience would be interested in this subject because D-Day was such an influential battle in WWII and would generally agree with this author’s perspective on the topic. The author incorporates the following types of evidence: that even Eisenhower wasn’t sure if his plan would work. Based on my own opinion, experiences, and research, I agree and disagree with this author because it was risky but I think it was a necessary battle. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it shows the other side of my argument.

http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/normandy/nor-pam.htm. “Normandy.”

This article is a credible source for my research because the US Army wrote the article and the US Army was at the Normandy Invasion. The article was published on the US Army’s history site. The author’s main goal in this article is to inform about D-Day. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: people interested in WWII. This audience would be interested in this subject because D-Day is an influential battle in WWII and would generally agree with this author’s perspective on the topic. The author incorporates the following types of evidence: actual facts and evidence that actually happened. Based on my own opinion, experiences, and research, I agree with this author because it is factual evidence. I think this article is important to include in my essay because I need factual evidence in my paper.

Wilson, Theodore A. http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/wildda.html. “D-Day 1944.”

This article is a credible source for my research because it is done by Kansas University. The author’s credentials include being a professor at the University of Kansas.  The article was published in 2013 in the Kansas University paper. The author’s main goal in this article is to inform about the Normandy Invasion. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: people interested in history and or WWII. This audience would be interested in this subject because D-Day is a major battle during WWI and would generally agree with this author’s perspective on the topic. Based on my own opinion, experiences, and research, I agree and disagree with this author because it’s factual evidence but don’t agree with her opinion. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it gives someone else’s opinion.

Heuvel, William J. vanden. http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/library/pdfs/vh_dday.pdf. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt and D-Day: Operation Overlord.” 5 June 2000.

This article is a credible source for my research because it is the D-Day museum in Louisiana. The author’s credentials include being the Chairman of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. The article was published in June 2000 for the convocation of the D-Day museum. The author’s main goal in this article is to inform about the Normandy Invasion. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: people who are interested in the D-Day invasion. This audience would be interested in this subject because it is talking about the opening of the museum of D-Day and would generally agree with this author’s perspective on the topic of the Normandy Invasion. Based on my own opinion, experiences, and research, I agree with this author because it was a tough battle but was a necessary one. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it represents my side of the argument.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq109-1.htm. “D-Day, the Normandy Invasion, 6-25 June 1944.”

This article is a credible source for my research because it is by the US Navy and the US Navy helped to land the US Army on Normandy. The author’s credentials include being the US Navy, the US Navy was there at D-Day. The article was published on the US Navy history website. The author’s main goal in this article is to inform about D-Day. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: people who are interested in WWII or D-Day. This audience would be interested in this subject because D-Day was an influential during WWII and would generally agree with this author’s perspective on the topic. Based on my own opinion, experiences, and research, I agree with this author because it fits with my view of D-Day. I think this article is important to include in my essay because it is factual evidence.

Research for the research

As you narrow a topic down and start to decide what your topic is, you need to make sure the topic is a good enough topic for the paper or essay. Is the topic easy enough to write about(not too broad or too narrow) and can you research the topic? A topic can not be too broad because the research done maybe of no use. If a topic is too narrow then there may not be enough research done. Here are a few steps to help with finding out if a topic is searchable.

1. Put in keyword combinations from the previous exercise into Google. Then try two different search engines( Bing.com, Ask.com) See what you come up with.

2. Next search on a metasearch engine(Dogpile.com, Search.com)

3. Finally visit Noodletools.com and click on "Choose the Best Search." Scroll down to search engine and search the keywords.

Decisions decisions decisions

For outside readers who are not in college of Mrs. Byxbe's English class, I am doing this blog to help my to do an awesome job on my final essay. This entry is about how to see if you have a good topic for my/your essay.

Topic: D-Day
1. Inquiry question: What happened during D-Day?

2. Explore: Additional questions that may help discover answers to my research question- How many men landed on the shore? What generals were on shore?
    Argue: Theory or hypothesis about your topic are you testing? What is your tentative main claim or thesis?-I am not exactly sure at this time because I am still figuring this out.

3. What, if any, prior beliefs, assumptions, preconceptions, ideas, or prejudices do you bring to this project? Personal ideas?- D-Day was more of a land grab then winning of the war.

Your Topic of Choice

Haven't you ever had trouble figuring out an essay topic? For those not in college anymore, back in the day, didn't you have trouble? I know I have and am for the next essay I have to write for English class. The following steps are too help me and maybe you figure out a topic.

Step 1: Define three columns with the words below-

PEOPLE: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan, Henry Ford, Ronald Regan

HISTORY: WW1, WW11, September 11, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Korean War

TECHNOLOGIES: Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Vizio, HP, Samsung

Step 2: Review your lists. Look for a single item in any column that seems promising. Highlight the item.

Step 3: Make a list of questions-as many as you can- that you'd love to explore about the subject-

• D-Day
• Pacific War
• Pearl Harbor
• Japanese Segregation
• Battle of the Bulge
• Concentration Camps
• Eastern Border
• POW Camps

Exercise #1

Step 1-
True- You have to know your thesis before you start: A thesis sets up your whole essay or paper. The thesis explains what topics you are going to be writing about in the essay or paper. You have to know your thesis because you have to know what you are going to be writing about in the essay or paper. The thesis also wraps up your paper. So the thesis is a huge important part of the essay or paper.

False-You're writing mostly for the instructor: The paper or essay is for the intended audience and the audience of the opposing view. Yes the essay or paper will be turned into the instructor but you are not writing just to them. The essay or paper should be respectful to any audience who may read the paper or essay.

Step 2-
True- There is a big difference between facts and opinions: Facts are things that have been proven in everyday life. Facts are things that everybody agrees on; from experts to common people. Research has been done, numerous experiments have been done and has been proven to be true. Opinions are things that only a select few believe or think. Opinions are things that have not been proven; just things that could potentially be true or false.