Peer Reviews This Week!

Going into week 7 of class this week and were are completing our peer reveiws. This is something that really doesn't effect me or worry me at all. I really enjoy the contructive criticsm that I recieve from my fellow peers. I think any person when writing a paper deals with a kind of tunnel vision; you only read the paper the way you think it should sound. When sometimes, what makes sense to you throughout the paper, might not makes sense to the person reading it. This is something that many times I find that I do not notice until it is pointed out to me. I can then make the changes needed; in the end, my paper ends up being much better.

I usually do not have a problem giving constructive criticsm. I think a lot of it depends on the type of person you are. I am one who is very considerate of others and their feelings and many times picture myself in others shoes before I say anything. I would never want to say something that would offend  or hurt someone's feelings. I know how much time and effort I put into my papers when writing them; if someone were to tear my paper apart I would be hurt. That is something that I would never want to do to another individual.

Thel last 6 weeks...

The last 6 weeks for me have been full of both ups and downs. This term for me has not been as difficult for me as previous terms have been. I have managed to stay current on my assignments, recieved an A on my midterms, and managed to still spend as much time as I can with my little peanut. I am proud of myself that I have been able to achieve all of these things because things lately have not been easy. My mother watches my daughter for me a couple hours a day so I can do homework; she recently had to have a partial histerectomy and was unnable to lift her for over 2 weeks. Also, my daughter Nevaeh turned 1 year old and I have to plan and throw her 2 birthday partys!! Inbetween all this, I had family come to visit (and we all know how stressful it is to entertain a houseful of people)! Those are just the major events that have taken place in the Higgins household lately.

Academic Challenges

This term is my fourth term at Kaplan University. Somehow I am still maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Many people around me find it hard to believe that I have "academic challenges". Of course, just like any other person I do. My main fault is being my worst critic. When many people will say "Oh that is good enough" or " That sounds fine". I will revise it, and revise it, and revise it again. A lot of times I put way more effort and time into things then I need to. I also tend to second guess my work and then change it over and over and over again. I have always been like this, through high school and now through college. It effects me more now because I have a 1 year old daughter. I could me spending more time with her, rather then re-writing and re-checking and re-doing everything I do. But I guess that is the price I pay for wanting all the scholarships, grants, and scholarary awards. It is a great reward when grades come out and the A is then worth everything I went through and all the time I put into it. But sometimes I wonder whether or not the time I spend, and all the opportunities I give up to do other things in order to study are worth it. I am my own academic challenge.

My outlook on plagiarism

I myself have never plagiarized, but in highschool I did have an incident that hit close to home. One of my best girfriends had used one of my papers and turned it in as her own. I had taken the same government class she was in the semester before. I don't know how she thought she would get away with it; it was the same exact teacher. I was a straight A student and had recieved an A on the final paper. She was having family issues and had been staying at my house in the mean time. Needless to say, she took my paper and turned it in. The teacher said he was suspicious right off the bat because she struggled to maintain a C and here she had "written" this spectacular paper. I was called into the school administrators office and questioned about the paper. Thank god she confessed to taking my paper without my knowledge, otherwise I would have faced disciplinary action also. In the end, she failed that course.