Ok, it looks like it has come down to the core of the semester. Only a few more weeks to go and time is definitely running out. Here’s what happened in week #12…

I set out to get all of my work for this class completed before the weekend. If you are keeping up with my entries, you know that this is an objective that I have had for several weeks. Well, this week, I think that I have come closest to doing this. I have finished all but one tiny little assignment, the preface to my MRP. I love knowing that my weekend is fairly freed up!! I set out to do most of my work before the weekend because I want a weekend where I can just relax and spend some time away from the project. I feel that at this point in time, I need some clarity and I need to regroup and find the focus and the desire to work on my research that I have lost somewhere along the way. I also set out to keep going back to my work and seeing if there are any sources that I have left out. I wish now that I had kept track all along! I basically did this because if I don’t, then I would be plagiarizing.

The content of this week was very small, but I’m definitely not complaining. We met Wednesday on the MOO and I received some answers to some of the questions that I have wanted to ask. It was also nice to see where everyone else is in their MRP’s and to listen to everyone else’s angst about the project. Sometimes I like to hear other people complain just so I don’t seem like such a whiner to myself! Thus far, I have completed my reviews of my group members’ final genres as well as their reference lists. I have also drafted the acknowledgements and the about the author sections of my MRP and I am going to draft the preface later on (maybe tonight, tomorrow, whenever). And lest we forget, the wonderful “Online Journal”, which of course, I am completing right now.

I don’t think I used any significant processes in my thinking, but Mrs. McComas would probably rebuke me for saying that. She would probably say something like: “All processes in thinking are significant processes” (or something like that, anyway). I made sure to get a copy of the APA manual (5th ed.) so that I could accurately review the reference lists of my group. Even though I had a copy in front of me, I still don’t know what I’m talking about! APA to me is just weird. Anyway, I drafted my “About the Author” and “Acknowledgements” sections this week too. I went back and looked at some of the summer classes’ MRP’s to see how they did. I was able to get ideas about how I wanted mine to look and what I wanted to say. I wanted to include everyone in my acknowledgements, so I was careful not to leave anyone out. In completing my preface, I am going to look over some of the students’ work from the summer to get some ideas sometime this weekend.

The only new place that I have arrived in my thinking is a place called “BURNT OUT”. I know it’s sad and I probably shouldn’t say it, but I am getting tired of not having a weekend and working about 13-14 hours a day, almost everyday. I know waiting ‘til the last minute to do everything is no one’s fault except for my own, but it seems as though there are just days where I don’t want to do anything, and then I say, “Well, I’ll have time on Sunday” (such a bad habit!). I have also realized that maybe what I need is some time away from the project and I think this week has given me a good opportunity to do just that; however, I have become somewhat obsessed with the project and I find myself going back to something I’ve done and tweeking it over and over again. It gets to be pretty annoying! I feel that time away from the project will give me the clarity I need to revise my project with a clear head and will give me a chance to refresh my brain so that I may come up with new and improved ideas for my work.

I don’t have any questions at this time, nor did I have any last week that need answered now. Most of my questions came up in the MOO discussion this week and they were answered. So, I guess I don’t have much else to say….for now.

Heather P.