Narrowing Topics

Parents pushing children in sports
Argument- Parents trying to live a dream through their children can be harmful for them.

Sports are important.
Argument- Sports help children develop all the necessary skill for adult hood.

Effects on children of single parents.
Argument-Just because you come from a single parent household does not mean you are going to be a bad person.

Parents pushing children in sports
Title: Survival of the fittest?
Source: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
November 30, 2003, Sunday, Metro Edition
Summary: This article talks about how parents are pushing children in competitive sports. Then goes in to talk about rich and poor schools, wealthy schools have the money to buy all the expensive equipment needed where poor schools do not. Finally, it discusses how high school sports are turning into the “survival of the fittest.”

Title: Following in your footsteps isn't a given
Source: Chicago Daily Herald
November 22, 2002, Friday F3
Summary: Parents want their children to be just like them in sports or even better. Parents are living their dream through their children. However, children should be able to choose the sports they want to do. Also, when it comes to sports parents need to learn to be less of a coach and more of a fan.

Title: KIDS GET PAST PUSHY PARENTS
Source: Dayton Daily News (Ohio)
July 6, 2000, Thursday,
Summary: This article talks about how children of pushy parents come through it ok. It gives many examples, like Tiger Woods. However, it does talk about the other side, where kids don’t take pushy parents well. Supposable girls gymnastics and girls tennis don’t take pushy parents well.


Sports are important.
Title: Some Indiana special education students eligible for sports
Source: The Associated Press State & Local Wire
August 5, 2004, Thursday, BC cycle
Summary: Special education student are now able to participate in sports. However, they must follow some rules.

Title: Self-esteem in sports is the reputation you have with yourself
Source: Chicago Daily Herald
September 22, 2006 Friday
Cook Edition; Lake Edition; DuPage Edition; F1 Edition; F2 Edition; McHenry Edition
Summary: High school sports are the best place for students to build self-confidence and self-worth.


Effects on children of single parents.
Title: Why kids need both parents
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
January 27, 2003 Monday
Summary: This article talks about how single parenthood is bad for children. It goes on to talk about how these children will likely suffer from psychiatric illnesses and addictions.

Title: KIDS ARE DOING A BIT BETTER
Source: By Carole Feldman Associated Press
Summary: This article talks about how teen-agers are doing better now than perhaps their older siblings coming from single-parent families. It talks about how these teen-agers put more importance work, family and friends. Graduation rate was also higher.

Title: FOCUS ON HELP, NOT ON BLAME
Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI.)
July 12, 1993, Monday, ALL EDITIONS
Summary: Single parent families can make it. They can children rear healthy children. Single parents have many different things they can do to rear healthy children.

Thesis Statements

Parents pushing children in sports
Thesis-There are many positive aspects to participation in competitive sports, but some parents push their children to excessive levels because of their own selfish desires.

Sports are important.
Thesis-Competitive sports for adolescents have many benefits because of the physical, mental, and social skills that are developed.

Effects on children of single parents.
Thesis-Even though rearing children in a two parent house hold is the ideal, healthy children can be produced by single parents because of their focus on education, values, control, and community involvement.

Fulkerson Article

I learned a lot from this article. I never thought about that the topic matter would, but now I see that it does matter. If you are not interested in what you are researching you are not going to put the effort that you should into your paper. I also learned that interviewing someone that knows a lot about your area is helpful for your research; they might even help lead you into the right path of searching. Finally, I learned that there are many ways that your research paper could go wrong, for example; sources to old, believing what a tabloid says, etc.
The part that jumped out at me the most was the Make Your Research Thorough (and Current) section. The reason this section jumped out at me was because it kind of stressed me out! It made me think “Oh my goodness, this research paper is going to take a lot of time and research, am I going to find the time?” I knew about going to the library and looking at news papers for research. However, I didn’t think about going to a professor, which is something I would be scared to do. I am a very shy person! So, for this research paper if I need to go see a professor I am going to have to find the courage deep down inside of me.

CLIMATE

This website just makes me think of the nice December we just had. How a lot of the days were 60 degrees, which is not normal for December. Global warming is scary. Therefore, politicians don’t want to tell us anything scary, unless they have a solution to the problem. Therefore, politicians don’t have a solution, so they just tell us it is a hoax. This site doesn’t make me think global warming is a hoax. I really don’t know much about this topic, however talking to my parents about it makes me want to watch the Al Gore movie and research a little more on it.

Possibilites for Research Paper

Abortion, I did a little research paper on this once. When I did this research paper, I was at Purdue in West Lafette. At the time it was the perfect research paper for me. I was pregnant and my dad told I should get an abortion. My English teacher was the only person I told that I was pregnant while I was down there, no one else ever knew. She also, thought with my situation it was the best topic for me. However, since I have already did something on this topic once I don’t think I would want to do it again. Plus, many people do this.

School violence, I believe this to be a big topic. Just last night I heard that there was a stabbing at a local school.

Are parents pushing children over the limit in sports? When I was younger in gymnastics my dad pushed me a lot. When he would go to my competition he would point out all the mistakes I did. He would tell me that I needed to practice more and work harder. He even got to the point where he was making me go to private lessons. What I mean, I would go to practice with my teammates and then right after that I would have a one on one with my coach for another practice. For me it got to be too much. I started to really dislike gymnastics and wanted to quit. However, my dad wouldn’t let me. Finally, my mom stepped in and told him to go easier on me.

Sports in school, I believe that sports in school are very important. I made a lot of my good friends while participating in school sports. Plus, if I wasn’t active in these sports I can’t imagine what I would have been doing instead. I know I would have watched a lot more TV. I could have even become pregnant at a younger age. My sister is not that active in sports and now I am scared that she is going to down the wrong path.

All day kindergarten, I am not even totally sure how I feel about this yet. I have a daughter who is about two, so I have just a little time before kindergarten. However, if the all day kindergarten is going to be like the students sitting at a table most of the day I don’t agree with it. I think they should be able to take a nap if they want and play with each other a good portion of the day.

Second hand smoke, my dad has smoked around me my whole life. My mom just a couple of years ago started to tell him that he wasn’t aloud to smoke inside the house anymore. However, when she is not home he still does. I have suffered many headaches from him smoking around me.

Effects of children when parents getting a divorce or separate. My daughter’s father and I separated about a year ago. My daughter was only a year old. I do not think that it had a big effect on her at all, since I wasn’t living with him. However, I notice that when he would yell at me while she was around her mood would change.

Critical Reading

Critical reading is not just reading something one time. When I only read something once I don’t remember everything that I read. I am lucky if I remember half! Most of the times I will to go back and reread a couple times to fully understand the material. I will also highlight things I think are important or that I don’t understand. Critical reading helps you pick out what is important. It also helps you understand the material better.
We can’t just trust what everyone is saying. Sometimes I wish we could, because it would make life a lot easier, however, sometimes people are just not truthful. Sometimes people will lie to better themselves; for example politicians and global warming. We can have our own opinions. However, we need to make sure our opinions are true and not a lie; therefore we may have to do a little bit of research.

Comparable Issues

Truthfully, I am not big on following the news at all. I only watch the news every once in a while, which means, if I walk in the room and my parents have it on. I know it is bad that I don’t follow the news. It’s because when I would watch it, all I would hear about it people killing people. Then guess who would have nightmares! Yes, me!
However, I believe that there are many issues today that are comparable to Rachel Carson’s. For example war in Iraq and Global Warming are two big topics. I think another big topic is violence in schools. Schools don’t seem as safe as they use to be. Not even the Amish are safe from school violence.
I am a Math education major and when I went to observe a teacher at a local middle school, I was shocked at how I could just walk right into the school. I walked around in the halls for a while trying to find my way to the office. I walked by some staff members and many students, not one of them stopped and asked me where I was going or who I was. It kind of scared me how anyone could just walk into the school.
On the other hand, I am a coach at a local high school, at this school you have to push a button and tell the person why you are there and they also have a camera on you to see who you are. I think that is the way all schools should go. It makes it safer for all the students. Plus I know there are many other things that can be done.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html
http://www.keystosaferschools.com/violence-snapshot-2006.htm

Stuart Greene

Stuart Greene shows us how a research paper is just like an argument or more like a debate. We are letting everyone know what we feel and believe to be true. Also, we are trying to explain to others why are beliefs are better than others.
The thing that stuck out the most was framing. Just because you think you have your argument in a perfect frame, does not mean people see if the way you do. When we write our research papers we need to take a step back and put ourselves in the shoes of our audience.

Rachel Carson Article

Rachel Carson’s article had such an impacted because of the way she wrote it. Six months before Carson’s article was published, a book was published talking about the same things in Carson’s article. However, the book didn’t have the same affect on people as Carson’s article. The book published six months prior was only read by some scientist, whereas, Carson’s article was read by people everywhere, scientist and non-scientist.
Carson’s article was such an impact because she made it easy to read. She took hard and complicated scientific terms and put them in terms that almost everyone could understand. Also, at the beginning of her article she started off with a story, which helped her relate to her audience. She used the art of rhetoric to help persuade the ideas of her audience. She shows her position and gave some proposal arguments. This helps the audience realizes that something can be done.

Bio of Angela Staker

My name is Angela M. Staker. I am 21 years old and was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have one little sister, Ashley. My sister and I are seven years apart. Since we have such a big age difference, sometimes we don’t get along. However, we still love each other. I am really close to everyone in my family; my mom and my sister are my best friends.
My absolute favorite sport in the whole wide world is gymnastics! I started doing gymnastics when I was eight years old. I started competing in gymnastics when I was 11 and continued competing until I was 18 years old. During my years of competing I received many awards. My favorite event was the balance beam. I loved doing it because it is a big challenge to flip on a 4 inch wide beam. However, now I am just a retired gymnast and coach for a local high school team.
Right now my favorite thing to do is to hang out with my daughter. She is only 21 months old. She was born on April fool’s day! Trust me it was a big shock to me because she was not due for another month! I truly believe she is one of the best things that have ever happened to me. Yeah, I have to get up early everyday with her, can’t do some things because I can’t take her with me, and have to stay up late doing homework because I can’t do it when she is awake. However, opening her door in the morning and her saying “Mommy, Mommy!” makes it all worth it. She is so smart! She can count to ten and say her ABCs, I could go on and on about her.
I am a very busy person. I work when I can, which is usually when I have breaks from school; like summer and winter breaks. I also coach. I guess you could say that is a job or work, but I don’t consider it because I have so much fun doing it and get to work out. Then all the free time I have I spend it with my daughter. I am really sad that this semester started and that winter break went so fast, because now I know I won’t get to see her as much. I just have to tell myself “Angie it is good for her to not be with you some times!”
When I am not with my daughter, doing homework, or coaching, I like to hang out with friends and family. I love going bowling, even though; I am not very good at it at all. My highest game was about 140 and lowest probably around 30. My goal each time is just to try to get 100. I also, like to watch movies. However, people probably don’t like to watch them with me that much because sometimes I am the person that will talk during the whole movie. If I am in the movie theater however, I will not talk.







Me, my daughter, my sister