It was actually pretty cool to learn about open access journals this week.  It always seemed so intimidating to find scholarly articles...blah blah blah...every Professor keeps pushing that whole... legitimate, well-founded source thing on us. Man, I wish I would have watched more library database tutorials earlier on in my extensive academic writing career.  I was so afraid that I couldn’t write as well as others, until I saw how much of it was finding source material that was accredited and using it to bulk up my papers .  I wondered how so many people had such authentic ideas, turns out they don’t.  The important part though, is giving these authors the credit they deserve for finding other sources, that they gave credit to as well.  I am feeling somewhat sassy, if you couldn’t tell.  I took a speech class in Jr. College and the instructor pointed at me and asked me to stand up and explain in my own words what plagiarism is.  I stood up and declared “ummmmm don’t steal other people's shit”.  I really had to learn though, that paraphrasing was not enough, if it was their idea and you reworded it or even possibly sounded wittier than they, you still had to cite your source.  My favorite source of wisdom, for all time and ever will be: the ominous fortune cookie!  I am beginning to feel more confident in my researching abilities and what is more important is that I took this course pretty early on, and I believe it will pay dividends long after.  I thought it was very interesting when I watched the video on digital commons, at first I just kind of skeptisized… apparently that’s not a real word, that is something I may have to copyright, it is solely my intellectual property, anyhow I think it’s great that they want to make information available to the masses.  On a different note, I am (we are, I guess I have to share it with my husband and children) in escrow on an amazing home!  It’s so pretty I can hardly stay off pinterest, but I must because I have to finish college, get a job and fill my new big house with pretty shiny things.  

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