Research Reflection 5 (4-30)

When it was time to start searching for an expert to interview I had no idea where to start.  I started scanning through my sources in search of an important name or website.  After looking for an entire class period, I found the link to the veterans’ section of the National Suicide Prevention’s website.  On this site, you could search by zip code to find suicide prevention coordinators near your location.  I found many names with email addresses, and started sending out an email to each expert in hopes of getting positive feedback.  I was later contacted by Dr. Paul Fisher, and he was willing to help me with my research project.  These were the steps that I took to find my expert.

The process of writing emails to my expert was a totally new experience for me. I have never had to write a formal email to someone before, so I learned what to say and what not to say when requesting an interview.  However, it was not very hard once I got the hang of it, and in no time at all I had written an email that could be easily adapted in order to be sent to all of my possible experts.  In my email, I introduced myself using my first and last name, where Creekview was, and I informed him of my research project and my topic.  I also stated my request to have an email interview with him, and I attached the interview questions.

I learned from my expert that even when someone is a very credible and knowledgeable source they may not be willing to comply with your requests.  I contacted five experts on my topic, and only one was even willing to hear about what I had to say.  However, he did not agree to answer all of my questions, but instead he sent me many more emails with links to sources that he believed would help answer my questions.  Even though I had already been using some of the resources he sent me, I was very grateful for his willingness to respond.  He gave me some resources that helped me see the rise in suicides, the mental effects of war on veterans, and what actions are being taken by the military in order to prevent suicide. 

I learned many things throughout the whole process of finding and interacting with my expert.  The first thing that I learned was that in order to find an expert, you must be very determined and not give up or lose hope if you do not succeed at first.  I learned that patience is necessary when you are trying to contact someone because they may not always respond immediately.    I also learned that some experts do not write formal emails, and instead use slang words and add very personal and informal aspects to their responses.  This experience with my expert has lead me to see that some people either do not have the time, or do not care enough to respond to a high school student who is requesting a simple interview.  However, I believe that I was fortunate to find an expert that would take the time to send me some additional resources.  I hope that in the future I will not have this problem when contacting an expert.

I have a lot of advice for any fellow and future students who may use this same research process.  First, start looking for an expert immediately because it may take some time.  Also, try and contact your expert as soon as you find them since some of them may take a while to get back to you.  Some other advice that I would give would be to expect anything, because some people will be willing to help, some will decline your requests, and others might not be very considerate when they respond.  However, the most important piece of advice that I can give would be to stay on task and get your interview done efficiently but thoroughly.

Multigenre Musings

For my research project I had a variety of different Multigenre elements to choose from.  I have chosen to create the message in a bottle, a Glogster, a found poem, and a piece of original artwork.  For my message in a bottle I plan to write a suicide letter form a soldier who has just got home from duty in Iraq.  I believe that this will help me reflect on what I have learned because it will give me a chance to step into the shoes of a soldier who is about to commit suicide.  I hope to create my Glogster in order to create an effective visual information source to help people get a taste of what my topic is about.  I believe that a Glogster would help me better organize my ideas so that I can see what I have really learned from this research project.  I chose o do a found poem because I think that I will be able to create a very informational piece of art that will show my creativity and researching skills.  Finally, my original work of art will be both artistic and a helpful asset to my research project.  I believe that it will give me a chance to show a very personalized element since it will be my own drawings.  This will help me to express what I have learned in this project.

Research Reflection 4 (4-23)

                Since the start of my research project I have found many useful and helpful resources.  The top two resources that I have found so far is a video from CBS Evening news titled Vet’s Suicide Epidemic and the other was a chart from the SIRS database that showed the number of suicides over recent years.  The CBS video has been very helpful to me because it gave reports and interviews of family members of soldiers that had committed suicide.  This was helpful because it gave me a firsthand account of what kinds of issues soldiers go through when they have decided that they might commit suicide.  Also, since this video was from an actual news report from the CBS news station, I knew that it was credible and contained valuable information.  The chart showing suicide rates was helpful because it gave me a visual awareness of how drastically this threat is rising.  I found this resource useful because I can now use it on my Netvibes page to show my viewers how bad this issue has become.  I knew that this source was credible because it was from the SIRS database; also, its original source was from the McClatchy Washington Bureau in Washington D.C. 

                The research skill that I have learned from this research project is how to look for all different kinds of information sources as well as finding helpful ones.  It has been a very interesting research process, and I have changed my research methods I the process.  I believe that my new knowledge on looking at sources such as videos, database articles, pictures, and web searches has helped me through this research project.  I believe that without this skill, I would not have found as much of a variety of sources as I did.  Therefore, I would not have gained as much knowledge and information as I did by refining this skill and using it to my advantage.

Netvibes Check 1 Narrative: Telling the Story of Your Research Experience

Zach Morgan

Mrs. Lester

Hon World Lit/ Comp

18 April 2010

                So far, I have added many widgets and tools to my Netvibes page.  The widgets that I have already added are as follows: our libguides pathfinder, Gale tools, Evernote, my blog, the comments from my blog, our class agenda and announcements, a chart showing the increase in suicide rates in recent years, my CC license, and two videos on the suicide epidemic.  I use these tools everyday to help me when I am researching about veterans’ suicide.  My Netvibes page acts as a shortcut and an organizational tool.  It keeps all of my important sites and resources in an organized format, and it also keeps it all in one convenient place.  These widgets help both myself and others access all of the notes and web pages that I have clipped in Evernote, and help them to utilize the sources that Mrs. Hamilton has already put into our research pathfinder.  I also have a couple of news videos to help give viewers a visual look at my issue and how it affects soldiers.  I believe that Netvibes is an excellent way to help me stay organized, and it also helps me by saving time since I do not have to search for the resources that I have already found.  I have enjoyed creating my Netvibes page and I love using it every day in class.

                Netvibes is an excellent organizational tool and shortcut to all of my information and research; however, it is also a big help to other people as well.  Since my Netvibes page is public, anyone who visits the site may look at and utilize the research and information that I have already collected.  It could help other people because of all of the information that it will contain when I am done compiling my research; therefore, it would let others benefit from the work that I have already done, which will save them time when they are researching about this topic too.  My Netvibes page says a lot about me as a learner because it shows that I can be creative.  I am not really creative when it comes to web pages and computer designs, but I have managed to create a very well organized and useful Netvibes page.  I think that this project has helped to change the way that I learn.  It has taught me to be open to using my creativity and imagination and be open to new ideas when I am trying to do research on a topic.  I like how Netvibes keeps all of my information organized, and I believe that might even use it later in my high school or college careers.

Research Reflection 3 (4-16)

This past week I have been brainstorming and creating research questions for my topic on the veterans’ suicide epidemic.  I came up with most of my research questions as soon as I knew that my topic was going to be about suicides.  I thought of questions such as why and for what reasons veterans are committing suicide after returning from battle.  I thought of these immediately because I was appalled at the fact that after someone survived war that they would kill themselves.  Therefore, the main reason for doing research on these questions was because I was surprised.  Even after formulating these research questions I still have many more questions to ask my expert.  I am glad that I have been introduced to all of these new research organization tools because this helped me take my research and put it in a place that I could go back and access all of the information when I needed to do some in depth information gathering after deciding on my three main research questions.  I think that some of the causes could be stress, memories of events that impacted them mentally, and having nothing to go back to after the war; however, I think that there could be many more causes of suicide.  The other research question that I decided on has to deal with whether or not the aspects of a soldier’s life such as age, gender, and background affect whether or not they commit suicide.  I am very anxious to answer these questions and learn more about my topic.

Reading Response Journal for April 15

Zach

Chapter 4

14 April 2010

What Was Asked of Us

By: Trish Wood

This chapter of the book has stood out to me over all of the rest, and in my opinion it contains the most meaningful and moving accounts of war that I have ever read about.  I feel that some of the events and realizations in this chapter were long overdue.  The beginning and middle of the book was like a broken record in the sense that all of the stories were about violence and how much the war affected the soldiers in a negative way.  However, this chapter contains accounts of soldiers that have realized the true harm of war and what the purpose of the US presence in Iraq was about.  I believe that, without this chapter, the book would not have been as good, nor would it have had as much of an impact on me.

For example, one soldier tells of how the Iraqis had their first free election.  This election was significant because it was a powerful symbol to the Iraqis since it represented the first time that the people of their country had the right to control their own destiny.  Other soldiers addressed what kinds of things happen to soldiers after they leave the fighting.  They tell about how PTSD has torn apart the lives of their fiends and themselves, and how violence and thoughts of suicide linger around every corner.  I believe that this was the most important part of the book because it is the most meaningful and informational since it provides readers with a firsthand account of the horrible things that can happen to veterans.

Research Reflection 2 (4-2)

This week I found myself loving Evernote more and more.  Therefore, I feel that it is necessary to continue to put out good vibes about this wonderful bookmarking tool.  I have found Evernote to be one of the most helpful tools that we have been introduced to this year because of how well it organizes and displays all of my notes.  This has made it very easy to go back and read some of the information that I have found without having to search for it at all.  I have also found Evernote very helpful in creating notes that contain ideas that have come to me about my research project that I may need later.  For example, I create done note yesterday so that I could remind myself to include a section of very powerful text that I found while searching one of the Gale databases.

                One other thing that I look forward to for the rest of this research project is my Netvibes page.  This week I completed the triage for Netvibes and I am now so interested in my Netvibes page that I can hardly contain my excitement when I walk into class and get to work on it.  I am interested to see what kinds of gadgets I can incorporate into my site as well as helpful pieces of information that will strengthen my research portfolio.  Along with my Netvibes page, I am also excited to see how my Google site is going to take shape over the next couple of weeks.

Reading Response Journal for April 1

Zach

Chapter 3

31 March 2010

What Was Asked of Us

By: Trish Wood

    One quote that stood out to me was “It was one of the things that I told everybody not to do: not to use the marines’ names-that when they came in the door, everybody had a rank and everyone that came through the door got a number.  And so either you’re done with the lance corporal or you’re not done with the lance corporal.  You’re done with number sixty-two or you’re not done with number sixty-two.  But it was such a shock that the marines just couldn’t help it: they were using his name.” (Wood 114).  This quote shocked me because this soldier is not even referring to the soldiers by their name because it could weaken him mentally.  This was so shocking because this soldier was sacrificing the one sense of formality that he had with his fellow marines, and he was only doing this in order to keep himself strong.  This quote also seemed to be similar to others in both What Was Asked of Us and AQOTWF since it has to do with how humanization of other soldiers can affect another soldier mentally.  I also believe that this quote shows how the soldier is afraid of dealing with the reality and deaths of war.  Therefore, this soldier takes drastic measures when dealing with this fear.

    One of the things that surprised me about this chapter was how much more violent and disturbing it was than the other two.  In this chapter they discussed some f the most violent and excessive means of torture and death that I have ever heard.  This chapter also discussed how, after the Iraqis had tortured the American soldiers, they would burn the Americans and throw them into the streets so that everyone could see that they had killed them.  I believe that these means were extremely violent and very disgraceful and demeaning for the American soldiers.  However, it was clear that these account never said anything bad of what the American soldiers did when they captured enemy Iraqis.

    One other recurring theme that I observed that caught my attention was the test of peoples’ faith in the belief in their religion and in themselves.  In this chapter, just like in the other ones, some of the soldiers refer to the belief in God as nothing but a hopeful falsehood and that your fate is left up to luck.  I believe that it is horrible for these soldiers to lose belief in their religion, even though they are being battered by a lot of mental and physical pain.  However, I feel that when times are tough people need their faith more than any other time because it makes them remember who they truly are and what tier purpose is.  I hope that the causes of this theme and others in the book can be answered by our discussions, research, and project in general.