Blog Assignment # 9

This is my first English class since 1992. I have never been a good student overall but, I remember getting good grades in English and being told I was a good writer in high school. I thought this class would be a breeze when I signed up for it. I learned better from the start. Although the class really was not that hard at all I struggled with disciplining myself to spend time each day working on my assignments rather then procrastinating until the last minute. I have had a very ruff few months with my personal life so staying focused on school was complicated.

The way the course was set up was pretty much black and white. I knew what I had to do in plenty of time to get it done. I didn’t like the theme being on the paranormal at first. I am a big chicken and try not to think about ghost and things of that nature. After I started writing my papers I actually started to get interested in it all though. I even got brave enough to write about Waverly Hills. I learned that paranormal activity is real and I am no longer a skeptic. I also learned how to write everything in the proper format and how to organize my thoughts into words that actually make sense on paper. I am now able to articulate myself much better.

I did have fun throughout this course. Even though I procrastinated throughout this course and I am far from cured from my procrastinating ways, when I actually sat down and did all my assignments I really enjoyed gaining all the knowledge. It was fun putting together everything just the way we were told to. Anticipating the posting of your grades and wanting to hear what your peers had to say about your work was kind of exciting. I truly did like this course.

If I could do anything differently I would get all my work done and turn everything in on time. It’s 9:34am right now and I have to rush through to get this blog posted. This will be something I will continue to struggle with and have to make a conscience effort on curing in my daily life. This is also the first time I take online classes and I didn’t realize how easy it is to forget to check your assignments because you get caught up in your daily life.

I want to say thank you Professor Stacy for being a wonderful and patient teacher. Thank you for laying everything out for us in elementary terms and being available to us when needed. Thank you for being understanding and caring to personal issues that came about. I learned that being in collage is a challenge when you have a professor that is hard to deal with or that no one likes. It really does make a huge difference in your learning experience when you mesh well with your teacher. You truly rock!

Response to Second Peer Review

I had only one response to my essay. It pointed out a few, simple things for me to correct and I think there will be no problem in fixing them. The suggestions about grammar and MLA format will be the most important changes I focus on. My revision will consist of checking out the grammatical errors and seeing how those can be fixed. I will also go over the MLA instructions again just to be more familiarized with them before I submit my essay for grading. I do think the suggestions were helpful but it would have been more helpful if I had more than one response to do my revisions from. I always think it's good to have several "outside" opinions on a person's work. It's sometimes hard to see your own mistakes.

Can twins can communicate telepathically?

In the first source, “Twin Telepathy”, Pamela Prindle Fiero talks alot about how twins share a special connection that surpasses that of ordinary siblings. Some twins experience physical pain when the other twin is also in pain, they have some of the same actions at the same time.

She gives the definition of telepathy as the process of assessing thoughts or feelings without help from sensory input like sight, sound or touch. She also throws in the idea of ESP, extrsensory perception, playing a role. She defines ESP as is an ability to acquire information without relying on physical senses or previous experience.

As far as scientific evidence of this phenomenon being true, there is none. But even without proof, the experiences can't be denyed. These experiences are accepted as a deep emotional connections. Twins are connected more intimately than other siblings. These experiences can also be seen in close couples such as a wife and husband. It is also thought that the experiences are more with ientical twins and not fraternal twins.

She performed an experiment with her own twins and with her husband. She gave them a test called the Zener ESP test. She explains the results from the twins test and the results from her and her husband's test. She goes into detail about the twins approach to taking the test.

In the second source, “How Stuff Works” by Katherine Neer, a part of her article covers telepathy in twins. She asks the questions, "Can they read each other's minds?", "Do they finish each other's sentences because they are truly telepathic?", "Do twins possess some shared form of extrasensory perception that the rest of the world doesn't?"

Some people believe that everyone possesses the ability of ESP and others believe that only "special" people have the ability. She also covers the subject of the results of experiments performed show that twins aren't anymore connected in this way than others. She talks about a couple of specific experiments that were performed and the results.

There are other experiments that have been performed that show not only twins but other close relationships also have telepathic tendencies. Results indicate that the bond may be merely the result of spending alot of time with each other and getting to know each other.

The explanation is that after living together for a long period of time, your brain has stored information about this other person from your five senses. These "things" can be stored conciously or unconsciously. Instead of the person "reading your mind" they are simply picking up visual clues and comparing them to those things stored in your mind.

In the third and fourth source, Twin Telepathy: The Psychic Connection by Guy Lyon Playfair, he gives different scenarios of telepathic experiences between twins and other closely related people. He says the intensity of the bond between twins is so strong that we should begin studying telepathy here. He also talks about how the necessary research has not been done. Tests started in the 1880's but no serious twin telpathy study has been done on a large enough scale.

Blog Assignment #6

I had a little bit of a hard time coming up with my thesis statement. I think I did a nice job though. I found wile researching the web on my topic allot of the articles refer to books that have been published. I am compiling a list of these books to find in the library. The KCTCS library card catalog that our professor provided for us is another great resource to help find other offline resources for this assignment. It's been a long time since I've been to the library but I am sure I will be able to find my way around and use the tips that have been provided, once again, by our professor. I am hoping to find some specific scientific studies on my topic rather than just examples of different experiences.

Blog Assignment #5

I learned a lot when reading about Persuasive writing. I had no clue what it was at first. The first thing I needed to learn was MLA formatting. I think I have a better understanding of MLA for essay 2. I also think I will be able to correctly write my Work Cited page this time around. I plan on making my next essay more credibly by including more expert cites to support my point of view. I think I will be a pretty good persuasive writer since I have an extensive sales background. What I gathered from reading about persuasive writing is you are selling your opinion to your audience. The most important lesson I learned was how to write my thesis by asking myself important questions to determine what position I hold on the topic. All the information on persuasive writing was very informative and I am confidant that I will be able to apply it to my next essay.

Blog Assignment #4

After revising my essay I was pretty pleased with the turn out. I learned a lot of information about Nostradamus along the way. The feedback that my peers gave me helped me to re write some of my sentences. I also added what information I could find about Nostradamus's childhood and how he gained his visioned. I think I did fairly well. I am not really sure how well I did on my Work Cited page but I guess we will see. I learned how to structure my paragraphs much better and what type of format we should be turning our essays in as.

Blog Assignment #3

After reviewing my feedback one my first essay from my peers I've decided to try to find a little more history on Nostradamus's childhood. I will also proof read my essay for punctuation errors. I'm also going to try to find out when and how Nostradamus got his first visions. I might include some examples of predictions that believers feel came true and some that obviously failed. I think the feedback was very helpful since I knew I needed to add a little bit more. I only received 2 peer reviews and wished I would have gotten three. At least I now know what direction to take. I just wasn't sure what direction to take with it. I will definitely be making corrections and enhancing my paper.