research paper

The first time I started looking at sources was when we were assigned to find the encyclopedia articles on our topic. I found two or so pretty nice encyclopedia articles that were on my topic and also directly related to my movie. My movie, Schindler's List deals with this main guy named Oskar Schindler, and the encyclopedia article had several pages just about him. I have not looked much into the articles and so I do not exactly know how I am going to incorporate them into my research paper. The other source that I thought I would use from the beginning is a book I read in high school about a Holocaust surviver, the book called Night by Elie Weisel. It is a very well written and extremely sad story about Elie, his family and everything they were put through. I did not realize that this book and the movie Schindler's List are about two totally different sides of the Holocaust, however, I could possibly compare the two and talk about that. There is also the book Schindler's List which I have not looked into but I assume I will use it to compare the book and the movie.
There are many arguments I can make about my topic, like why even make the movie? What message does it convey? I think these basic questions/arguments are some ways to show that this was an important event in history and to make a movie about the man Oskar Schindler who saved so many Jews from being killed is something people should be able to watch and learn more information about. Watching this movie was a very sobering experience that almost brought tears to me. I had to turn my head away at many scenes because of the brutality of it. A lot of the times when I watch movies I think "oh this isn't actually happening so I can stop being so freaked out, or cry" but with this movie when I was watching it I was realizing "wow all of this actually did happen". This was probably the hardest part of watching the movie, knowing that it was a true story and all of these people were treated so horribly and killed. More questions/arguments like why it was made in black and white? Even though they show a girl in a red coat. This is an important symbol and I know there is a reason for why the producers decided to show this one girl with a red coat in the movie. This might be the hardest part to argue, however, I think it was to show how when people see such mass murder they are taken aback but don't really realize the importance until you point out specific individuals it makes more of an impact. And I think showing this little girl in a red coat obviously stuck out in the movie, because it is in black and white but then when it shows her being dumped into flames it has more of an impact because even though she was just another one of the massive group of dead Jews she was a person too . This girl in the red coat is actually a Holocaust surviver, who has a movie produced about her survival. So I do not exactly know why they would show her being killed. I do think it was a way of showing how there were so many and another little girl just being added to the pile was nothing for the Holocaust.
I really love the book I chose, Night because it is such a remarkable story. I loved reading it, and like I said in my previous blog I pretty much hate reading. Even though I am not sure if I can even use this book because it relates to the other side of the Holocaust it is my favorite source.
Here are some links that I could possibly use for internet sources:
This site is more about background information and informative info that some might not know, and it helped me to understand reasons behind the Holocaust.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_Holocaust_happen
This second link is something that I just found and I think is pretty cool. It lists all the people's names that Oskar Schindler saved from the Holocaust. I don't really know how it will be helpful but I think it's pretty neat. It also has information about Hilter, Schindler, the Nazis and more.
http://www.auschwitz.dk/Schindlerslist.htm

This is just the wiki of the movie but it has information about symbolism in the movie and other useful facts that could help me write my paper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schindler's_List#The_girl_in_the_red_coat

reading and writing

I must say I am not much a reader or writer when I am not told to do so. I truly despise reading because every book I have ever had to read for school I found to be extremely boring. I was never interested in anything we had to read and I could barely understand most of it. It seemed like my teachers in middle school and high school would purposely pick the worst books ever. So my life in high school and middle school basically consisted of spark notes. I only read one full book through out middle and high school that was required. That book was, The Outsiders. I found it very interesting and intriguing, I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going on. It was one of the stories I could never put down. There was also another book I read, that in a sense was required, we had this thing called outside reading where we were allowed to choose a book to read and write about. I chose, The Virgin Suicides. It was also very interesting and I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. However, after those two books I never really found the interest to read anything else. I felt like I had better things to do than sit around and read. I think that school has been my reason for hating reading. Before I started school I never read much, except for the simple picture books with a few words. But when middle school came along I found myself reading what seemed to be the most boring books ever. My best friend at the time went to a different school but I remember she loved reading, and would read at any chance she had. She would tell me how amazing it was, and that I should find books that would interest me, but I never did. And I wish I had now because whenever a teacher assigns a book, I’m just like uhhhhh what now….this is going to be awful. And I know reading educates people, and I could use it, if only I could find something I liked! But now I find myself too busy to ever have time to sit and read a nice book. Except over spring break, I almost resorted to reading. My friend and I were pretty bored because it seemed like everyone else was out of town and we had nothing to do, especially on those rainy days. We actually went to the library to check books out, but came to find out we both had over $20 in late fees that we didn’t exactly feel like paying. So that attempt failed.
I can be an active reader when I feel it is necessary. If I am reading a book for some sort of research than I usually highlight things I think are important. Or for classes, I actually did that last semester. Every class period when the teacher would be going over the PowerPoint (that was directly from the book) I would go through and highlight everything she would say. I think in the long run it helped me study and learn the material for the tests. I think in a way it helps me “own” the text, because I have read the information and put my own notes to the side of it. It makes it more personable because it is my own words next to someone else’s writing.
I remember when I was little; maybe between three and six, I loved the book, Make Way for Ducklings. I would seriously have my Mom read the book to me every night for probably a year. I remember she was so sick of reading it, but every night when she said what book do you want to read, I would say MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS! My dear Mother probably still has that book memorized. I honestly don’t know why I liked it so much but something would draw me to that book so much that I would want to read it every night.
On the writing aspect, I never really would write other than what I was told to for school. Except for when I was younger and I had a diary that I would write about my day in or the cute boys. But I don’t really count that as writing, because when I think of writing I think more like intelligent works that takes time to think about, or something that could possibly be used for a book of some sort. I have never really found my creativity for writing and so I do not think I would be very good at it. I also am not extremely interested in sitting down and just writing. It has always been that way with reading and writing, I just don’t feel like I am particularly drawn to either of them.

This Semester

This is my second semester as a college student, and so far it has turned out to be quite nice. I am enjoying my freedom in college and for the most part enjoying the classes. Some even seem to be easier than those in high school. At first I thought this semester was going to be harder than my first, especially since I have to take calculus. However, for the most part things have turned to be quite nice, and not as hard as I expected.

Most of my classes are lectures, and I am supposed to take away from that and learn. Well as far as my theater class goes I have learned a lot about theater, not exactly things I feel necessary for me to learn but that’s okay. In English I feel like I learned a good amount when we had to read our book and answer the questions. It was very informative and the advertising and arguments sections really stuck out to me because we don’t really think about most things being arguments, because we are not looking for that type of thing while for example when watching tv. In my other classes, like history I haven’t really learned any new information, its more of just a refresher back from middle school history classes. I don’t understand why we learn the same history over and over again? I thought after middle school and high school it would be over, but no! That frustrates me! Calculus also frustrates me. There are hard concepts to grasp and I am just not a math person, but I have to take calculus because I am a business major.

I can’t really think of something this semester that I have learned and wish I knew before. However last semester I learned something that I wish I would of known before school started. I never knew how to look up professors on ratemyprofessor.com in order to get good teachers. After learning that in the middle of last semester I was able to look up the classes that I needed for this semester and then find teachers with positive comments. I am quite pleased this semester because most of what people said turned out to be true, and I have ended up with good classes/teachers.

This semester has gone by fast, and like I said not too bad! I am sure there are many things I could do to make it better. I could first of all stop procrastinating on everything but I don’t know if that problem will ever go away. Never once have I been able to study more than the day rather the night before for a test or even exam. I don’t know why but I just love putting everything off till the last minute. When I actually come down to the crunch time I don’t exactly love it though, rather hate it! I could also take better notes in my history and theater classes. The classes are quite boring lectures with a lot of information so I take my laptop to take notes. If I didn’t my hands would probably fall off from writing so much. But, the laptop does have a little problem because it distracts me. I guess if I wanted to do better I could ditch the laptop but there's no way I would do it!

When I think about what to gain from my education, it is a good question. I don’t exactly know to be honest but I can think of a few things that might possibly help me. Well first of all going to college I hope to get an education in order to find a good job after college and graduate school. I know there are things I will learn that will specifically apply to my major and those are the things I feel that actually educate me. Everything else that I feel like I will never use again are just there in the back of my head to “say I have them” and not look like some high school drop out. The classes I am taking like management 1020 and management information systems are classes that apply to my business degree and teach me valuable things I need to know that are one hundred percent related to the business world. These types of things are what I think educated me, because I am trying to learn them for a purpose not just because “I have to”. For example, we are required to take a certain amount of general education classes. Well for many of us those classes are not going to help us with our major, just help to round us. I feel like it’s nice to know these things but they are not going to apply to me later in life, like the art history class I took first semester. To be educated is important and to know certain things that I think I won’t need to know now might come in handy one day. I define educated as someone who has gone to school and actually learned the things they were supposed to. Many people go to school but I do not think everyone gets an education. I think this is based on ones curiosity. If you want to learn and are curious about the subject matter than I think it is easier to learn. A lot of kids in my senior class did not give a crap about anything; they just wanted to smoke pot everyday. Well they never did their homework or pay attention, so I do not feel like they actually got a good education. And I’m not saying I pay attention to everything and study all the time because everyone has there “I don’t care anymore” moments but I feel like getting an education is important because even though a lot of us don’t want to learn the things, you cannot do much in life with out one.

I do want a degree and an education. I know I am not the hardest worker but I do want to learn and feel smart! Honestly a lot of going to college is just to get a degree, in order to get a good job. Unless you want to work at McDonalds the rest of your life your not going to find much else. Its reality and you’re not going to find a well paying job with out a college degree.