Blog Review #2

   Blog Review #2

Emily Baker

Kelila Fitch-Cook

Jonathan Martinez

Rhonda Polak

sadpoorandhungry.blogspot.com Review

The blog is easy on the eyes with a simple visual approach that makes it easy to read. It is lacking an about page, though, which makes it difficult to discern the content and motivation behind the writing. The images at the end of each post appeared relevant and provided visual interest. The writing styles are inconsistent, but that's to be expected from three different contributors. The content is well written for the most part. The blog is so simple that there's not much left to say.

Link

English Video Project : The Use of Commas

Evaluating Online Resources Part One

Kelila Rose

ENG 121 BCC

3/6/2016

The name of the website is articles.mercola.com. The author's name, Dr. Mercola, is clearly stated in the article and there's an entire page designated to a listing of his mission and credentials. As I am studying the negative health effects of mold exposure, Dr. Mercola seems to be a reliable source as he is a DO (osteopathic physician). He lists not only his academic credentials, but history of various television and radio interviews and awards he's received in his medical field. Though the website is educational in nature, the URL does not express that.

The purpose of this site seems to be both informational and commercial. There are links to other information, as well as products for sale. The site also provides an extensive list of references, all of which are links, and mostly sourced from medical journals, such as those produced by the Mayo clinic.

The site appears to be updated regularly, as the copyright is labeled "1997-2016". And I find the depth of knowledge on the part of the author to be not only sufficient, but in alignment with my personal experience with mold exposure. When he writes "when your immune system is impaired, almost anything can happen in terms of negative health effects" (Marcola), I know this to be true, as I have lived it.

Works Cited

Marcela. Mold: The Common Toxin That Can Be Far More Damaging Than Pesticides and Heavy                       Metals. 3 Sep. 2011. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

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Evaluating Online Resources Updated: Jonathan Martinez

Evaluating website:

While evaluating reporting.bizjournalism.org article on Stunt Actors Compete With CGI for jobs the first impressions that appear to the source website is that it can not be taken as a credible source. The main site does not clearly state whether this is a group that is supported by an sponsor or organization while at the same time it is this groups objective to inform the public of the lives of people trying to make it and big companies looking for the next big thing in Los Angeles. The article itself does not have works cited for the information that it provides about the people mentioned for the main sources of stunt acting. Merely providing brief descriptions of Grant Jewett, Hugh Aodh O’brien, and Bridget Riley the stunt actors without any information on where the descriptions of these people came from. Another example is the fact that this article is on top of it’s main section Making It there is no clear indication that there is any updates in the past few years, which can indicate that this organization may no longer operational.

Link

Works citied

Canalas, Alicia. “Stunt Actors Compete with CGI for Jobs.” April 29, 2013. Web. 5 March 2016

Comparing Two websites:

While looking for a second article to compare with the first on EBSCO I stumbled upon one called Endangered Stuntmen that shows professionalism to the subject between CGI and how it is dominating stuntmen. The article shows more examples and has a lot more details on how stuntmen and CGI are opposing each other in the industry of film. While it easily states where it’s source came from and other title categories that clearly states what’s in the paragraph. Although the author, Weinman, Jaime, J, would not be on a higher grade than Alicia Canales author of Stunt Actors With CGI for Jobs because they both have the same style of writing and format when it comes to creating their points on each article.

While it was hard to distinguish both articles to see which one had the possibility to being a primary and credible source. It became clear that neither had enough information on either page to be taken as either a primary or credible source.

Link

Weinman, Jaime J. "Endangered Stuntmen." Maclean's 121.18 (2008): 55-56. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.

-Jonathan 

Comparing Two Websites

Emily Baker

Professor Zukowski

English 121

8 Mar. 2016

Link

Comparing Two Websites

Initial Thoughts:

Right off the bat, I can recognize the professionalism of the website in which the article about green sea slugs is found.  Everything on the website focuses on the articles found in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. The website takes the effort to make sure that all the information about an article is clearly stated. It gives a detailed information on the authors, when the article was published, and even when the article was edited and reviewed.  At the bottom of each article page is a list of references used. Within the article they are careful about using incite citations along with including hyperlinks to certain phrases and words.

Comparison:

There are many differences between this website, set up as a database of articles, and the website, set up in a blog format. The layout of the website is meant to attract the reader and lead it from one article to the next; whereas, the scholarly article is focused on the information and the article is really the only thing you see on the webpage.  Another major difference is the content itself. The article was much more in-depth and more detailed than the blog website. Even the abstract itself was longer than the entire blog post. Because there were multiple authors contributing to the article it is safe to assume that these authors must have strong knowledge on the subject matter. The blog post on the other hand, was written by a single author who seemed to have taken information from around the web and summarizing it.

 Example References the article used:

Rumpho ME, Summer EJ, Manhart JR (2000) Solar-powered sea slugs. Mollusc/algal chloroplast symbiosis. Plant Physiol 123:29–38.

Rumpho ME, Dastoor FP, Manhart JR, Lee J (2006) in Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration—The Structure and Function of Plastids, eds Wise RR, Hoober JK (Springer, Berlin), pp 451–473.

Works Cited

Rumpho, Mary, et al. “Horizontal Gene Transfer of the Algal Nuclear Gene psbO to the Photosynthetic Sea Slug Elysia Chlorotica.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. 105. 46 (2008): 17867-17871. Web. 3 Mar. 2016

Evaluating and Reviewing a Website

Emily Baker

Professor Zukowski

English 121

8 Mar. 2016

Link

Evaluating and Reviewing a Website

Initial Thoughts:

The website, IFL Science appears to be a factual science website that is set up like a blog. Different author contribute by providing a wide variety of posts about science related information.  Articles range anywhere from biology and chemistry all the way to technology and space. Because it is set up like a blog, there are various ads, including ads that direct you off the website and onto other blog type websites. However, the information on this particular website appears to be very credible. In each post there are various links within the text directing the reader to the original source of information. Each article is very factual based and unbiased. The goal of the website seems to want to provide readers a quick way to gain new science knowledge without having to go read an entire scholarly article.

Excerpt from an article:

            The green sea slug is unique in its biological structure because although defined as an animal it possesses the ability to photosynthesize. According to an article on Science, “The sea slugs embed the chloroplasts into their own digestive cells, where the organelles continue to photosynthesize for up to nine months—that’s even longer than they would perform in algae. The sea slugs stay nourished thanks to the carbohydrates and lipids produced with photosynthesis (Fang).” This form of digestion is considered to be a unique from of gene transfer that still seems to puzzle biologists. By carefully studying the green sea slug’s uptake of the photosynthesizing DNA, scientists can understand the molecular evolution of multi-cellular organisms.                 

Works Cited

Fang, Janet. “Sea Slug Steals Photosynthesis Gene from Algae” IFL Science. IFL Science, 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 3 Mar. 2016

Research: More Than Detective Work

Kelila Rose

ENG 121 BCC

3/2/2016

I appreciated the content of the text, though I found the formatting to be a bit visually disorienting. I do like some comic strips/graphic novels, but the flow of this one had me misplaced at times. It is, though, a creative and fun way to represent a topic that might otherwise incite a yawn from its audience.

The information is useful and I will be using it as a reference in the future. The difference between primary and secondary sources and the bias that can exist in both is something that I will now more readily scrutinize. This piece also emphasized the importance of utilizing sources for a specific purpose. For example, while an online source that may be biased and promoting of self-interests may not be appropriate for a research paper, it may be appropriate for an opinion piece. Overall, I found this article to be encouraging in these days prior to our looming research papers.

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