6th class

In the 6th class, we learned how to make a good presentation.

First we focused on the slide that is easy to see and helpful to do a presentation. I noticed that I have to make clear slides because if I would create complicated ones, they will be so hard for listeners to understand and they will become less interested in my presentation. It was surprising for me that the slight changes such as the location or colors of letters made a big difference of its impression. Creating slides sounds fun for me because choosing colors and size of the letters are like drawing a picture, so I want to work hard on it. 

Also, I heard the way of talking such as making eye contacts or using gestures is important. Since I have not experienced talking in front of other person so much, I want to practice many times and be ready for the presentation in class. 

Through the R&P class, I want to my presentation skill for the time I have to do it in the different classes.  

5th class

This week, we learned about zotero much more.

The first topic, how to search for a suitable book for an academic source was interesting for me because I didn't know how to see the book review critically. I thought books which has only high review are good but actually they're not, a book for essay should have low point review. From now on I can see books on Amazon from a different point of view and that will make easy to find good sources.

What I found the most interesting was I can easily attach many kinds of sources such as pictures, movies to an essay or some kinds of documents by using zotero. When organizing an essay, probably I will have to use visual sources, but I didn't know how to insert references of pictures into document, so zotero is really helpful to me.

I practiced using zotero and succeeded in making in-text citation, but failed to write work cited, so I want to try again until I learn it completely.  

4th class

Last week, I saw how to use zotero, which is a tool for making a list of references for academic essays.

When I wrote an essay in spring term, it was really hard and a little boring to make work cited and citation in the text, so it will be very helpful for me. In the class I saw the function of zotero and it looked so easy and wonderful. But unfortunately, I could not upload books I chose as references onto the internet because I used firefox by the other account, and I was so confused. Also, I couldn't understand it completely though it seemed so useful.

To improve my essay, I want to work hard in the next class and learn zotero.  

Library Orientation

The 3rd class was an irregular cource and we took a library orientation.

First we used Gale Virtual Reference Library, which is a kind of an online dictionary, and it helps us not only to find the meaning of words but reserch further information related to the words.
Next, we learned how to use Lexis Nexis. This is a database of newspaper articles, and it will be convenient when I have to look for information from newspaper. I will have to write many academic essay or reports in the near future, so I want to keep it in mind and use it effectively. What I thought interesting was that I can serch for articles in English, so I can see how incidents in Japan are interpreted by journalist in other countries.
Finally, there was an explaination of ICU Discovery, zotero(a little), Grammely, and Writing Support Center. I'm not good at writing especially an esay, so I may ask all of them for help someday.

The quiz was a little challenging more than I thought.