Reflective- DudeInTheBack

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

When I receive feedback from my professors on something that I thought was a semi flawless assignment, I usually would imagine hearing all positive things. Most of my teachers in my past usually would only comment positive suggestions only when something in my paper was really wrong. This unfortunately has blinded me from the amount of feedback I actually needed. The social and interactive practices I have with my professor in Comp. II, is the extensive feedback I receive on posts along with feedback in the conference meetings. While discussing my Definition Argument position with my professor, he made my thoughts clearer on what should be my main focus argument. I was split between two directions I could take on this topic; comparing Adderall to Meth and saying they’re practically the same, or argue the dangerous effect of prescribing Adderall to children. He directed me towards arguing the negatives of prescribing, since I was more passionate and filled with positions about the prescription effect itself.  Eventually, I explored and discovered a lot about the effects of prescription, making my argument stronger.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

Using textual evidence to back up an idea in a writing was always hard for me. The aspect I struggle with is having to find sources, analyze them, and be able to fit them in an assignment correctly. While researching for my stone money assignment, I actually had a very easy time analyzing the given sources and placing them into my paper. The reason for this was due to how interesting and clear subject matter. After reading about the Island of Yap,  listening to the NPR broadcast “How Fake Money Saved Brazil,” and learning about bitcoin, I wanted to use what I learned in my writing to prove my idea. I The outside information I had perfectly correlated with my topic of money’s complexity, which made the process of incorporating outside information in my assignment much easier. If the information I find is strong, relevant, and clear to me, now I know that it I easy to utilize, rather than a cumbersome task.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

Being able to analyze the purpose of a visual or a point of view an author has is pertinent in understanding where they are coming from. This assessment of purpose can come from many things, like the tone of the speakers voice, the grammar and phrases someone uses in an argument, even compelling visuals in an ad. et cetera. In my Visual Rewrite, I demonstrated my value of analyzing a visual argument made by the American Lung Association. I came to the conclusion of their argument based on the visual metaphors that were deployed. Things like the mounds of tobacco, and the main character of the commercial climbing up these mountains made the message of the company very clear. There is a lot of detail that goes into a visual, and each little detail does a lot to an argument by either helping or hurting it.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

The creation and growth of my White Paper can be credited to all of the academic information that I have acquired from my sources while researching my topic. In this document you will find all of the sources I have found through researching about Adderall. Along with the sources, is short descriptions, or summaries of the source. I can look back Whether the source helps my case, or has a differing idea than my position, I still put it in there.  I even included an illustration of a picture of meth’s chemical makeup side by side with Adderall’s chemical makeup, showing their similarities. The ability to locate academic sources, analyze them, and make that information augment an argument is pertinent for persuasion.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

I always make sure to cite my work correctly. In fact, If I, or any other student does it incorrectly, we could get in serious trouble. Academic integrity is a big issue at Rowan, and not complying can cost you a grade. Taking an idea from another person and not crediting them is an example of how you will disobey the academic integrity law. In my Rebuttal, I cited an “Analog Classroom Assessment” study of 30 children with ADHD, the effects of different dosages (5mg, 10mg, 15mg, 20mg), and a placebo to show how the drug performed. After writing, I put the full information about the article, and my other citations in my reference section. In other works like my Visual Rewrite, I even linked the original video to my assignment.

Course Evaluations, Please

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Causal Argument Rewrite- paTricKStar123

The lives of our future leaders are at stake!

College is a place we come to enhance our education, to learn more about ourselves, and to choose our career paths. None of that happens without stress. While most students want on-campus housing to gain the experience of living on our own, dorm life can be a stressful and intimidating environment. Yes, it’s fun and exciting to leave family, friends, and arrive at college knowing only a handful of people, but it also subjects us to a normal life process known as “challenge stress” or “eustress.” Unlike distress stress that can be debilitating, eustress pushes students beyond our fears to reach our goals, encouraging us to bring new ideas to our ever-growing world, like how to get along with a roommate we don’t like.

On the other hand for students who are unprepared to meet these challenges that quickly arrive with growing up and going to college; these challenges can be draining. “According to a 2013 American Psychological Association survey, about one-third of college students have experienced depression within the past year and had difficulty functioning because of it” (Pedrelli, at et. 2015). Mental illness has been the topic of interest for years. Especially now, that hundreds of thousands of students are being affected worldwide. Depression and anxiety are one of the most common mental illnesses you can see on campus. Among the mental disorders, students have reported bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, substance abuse or addiction, and “other addictions.” The main reason for the numbers to not be decreasing is lack of advertising and their methods for treatment.

Correspondingly, Colleges fail in helping because they rarely promote their services. How can you expect students to ask for help when universities show their services only at the beginning of orientation. Furthermore, the way they go about trying to educate and help students is all wrong.As stated by Medical Care Research and Review, “Perceived public stigma was considerably higher than personal stigma.” Nobody wants to seem different and feel judged so making these services seem not welcoming will cause most students to hesitate to go. Additionally, these services single out students in a way because the only people interested are those who need help. What health services can do is set up incentives such as food and gear for going to meetings. This way more students will want to come, and others won’t feel singled out when approaching for information.

The traditional colleges offer mental health counseling but only say things about counseling during the orientation after that nothing else. Universities fail to tell students how they can cope with stress and don’t explain how you can distinguish between Eustress and Distress. Instead, they warn you about substances you may encounter and give numbers for services to call but the problem is many Students are nervous and don’t want to feel weird about talking to another person about problems. As a student who has attended both a traditional and community college, I can say there is a huge difference. My community college failed even to promote these services. In a recent study, the American College Counseling Association Community College Task Force (2010) found that 95% of community colleges have no contracted on-site psychiatry services, compared to 58.8% of traditional universities (Gallagher, 2012). Which proves my point 95% of community colleges don’t offer any psychiatry services, this is outrageous when we know there is a problem. Even so, Traditional universities only provide 58.8 %; for the tens of thousands paid every semester this is plain sad. These undergraduates deserve to have what they paid for.

Next, Universities need to work on their approach to educating these young adults. Recent studies found mindfulness to help combat stress and strengthen emotional health. While mindfulness can be difficult to achieve at first, it is not impossible with practice. This alternative coping method is relatively new, and results vary from person to person. “The basic premise underlying mindfulness practices is that experiencing the present moment nonjudgmentally and openly can effectively counter the effects of stressors, it can help students remain focused and calm” (Hofmann et al. 2010). The way mindfulness can help is for students who used negative coping methods such as self-harm, substance and alcohol abuse, or even have bad reoccurring thoughts, it can allow you to change your personality and curve your impulses. “This suggests that for individuals who observe in a non-reactive manner, observation may relate to lower levels of substance use.” This doesn’t have to be for those who are seeking help which is great because no one is singled out. Second, it allows for students to be able to learn these skill and use it virtually anytime.

Lastly, we cannot afford not to have this health program on campus because it is dire not only for the university itself but undergrads. Over the years accumulation of stories surface of college students, committing suicide, overdosing, getting alcohol poisoning, and some even hurting others. For the universities sake as well as its students; things need to change to help reduce these tragedies. Not only can this help its undergrads but save the university from financial lawsuits and reputation. A more recently written article by
Eugene V. Beresin, M.D., who is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School states more than 1,000 suicides take place on college campuses each year which turns out to be about two to three per day. Dr. Beresin writes in his research about how schools should increase their access to mental health counseling as well as having foster community counseling and support forum to try to reduce the stigma that occurs with receiving help. With students suffering and losing their lives over this condition, they can’t control. I don’t understand why no one wants to help. Statistics show that “80-90% of college students who die by suicide were not receiving help from college counseling centers” (Beresin, 2017). The excuses and claims made by critics are put to rest after this cold hard fact. It is as simple as taking the initiative.

To summarize as a whole, we need to speak up to improve our universities goal of helping its students. The rising increase from year’s statistics shows that students with mental illness are dangerously increasing. Throughout the years these students have suffered and deserve to be help. We pay thousands of dollars to go to a university in the hope of bettering our education, so it is their responsibility of holding us in a safe environment to do so. That being said, the education system should do everything in their power to help create a stable, safe environment for all students. By improving their mental health services on campus, they will give students an opportunity to achieve their dreams for the future. These undergrads have plenty of weight on their shoulders, dealing with this disease, let’s help them stay on track.
References

Beresin, E. (2017, February 27). The College Mental Health Crisis: Focus on Suicide.

Bowen, S. (03/2014). Relationship between dispositional mindfulness and substance use: Findings from a clinical sampleElsevier.10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.10.026

Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A. A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal Of Consulting And Clinical Psychology, 78(2), 169-183. doi:10.1037/a0018555

Katz, D. (2013). Community college student mental health: A comparative analysis (Order No. 3572817). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1434835907).

Moise, G. (2014). Good stress or bad stress? relationships between stress appraisals and strains in health care practitioners (Order No. 3630437). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1563382680).

Pedrelli, P., Nyer, M., Yeung, A., Zulauf, C., & Wilens, T. (2015). College Students: Mental Health Problems and Treatment Considerations. Academic Psychiatry : The Journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 39(5), 503–511.

Reflective – picklerick

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

I feel that my work throughout this Comp. II course has definitely been an interactive and social process. With each piece of feedback and each revision, I have acquired an increased sense of improvement for my work. My professor, Dr. Hodges, provided me with thorough feedback on my Causal Argument essay. His feedback included critique on my reference section, which I was then able to fix. It also included advice on how to change my approach to the topic. My approach started out very linear, and with this advice, I realized I needed to take a different path. I feel like my work made some great improvements by the second draft (the Causal Argument Rewrite). I basically changed my approach from “reading fiction is bad for you” to “reading more nonfiction is a great way to sharpen your brain.”  After then showing my revision to a friend, I was able to fix some wording and grammatical issues.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

I have experience with reading text critically to analyze it. This is apparent in my Safer Saws assignment, where I analyzed the claims made by five separate people about a table saw called the SawStop. The saw is special because the blade stops before your hand can touch it.  Each claim I analyzed had a different view of the saw. For example, an article written about a competitor saw (the Whirlwind) saw the SawStop as an inferior product. I was able to analyze the type of claim made by this article and whether or not it is reasonable, logical, and persuasive. I also feel like I learned a lot about close reading through my Research Paper. This is because I happened to write a lot about close reading in my paper, thus informing me more on the topic.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I feel that when I first wrote my Rebuttal Argument essay, I didn’t fully take into account the audience and context. I aimed to make the essay about how I think teachers should rethink the way they teach reading to kids in elementary through high school. With the help of prof. Hodges, though, I was able to state my claims much more effectively in my Rebuttal Rewrite essay. I acknowledged that my target audience was grade school teachers and restated my claims in a manner that would be more well-received by them. My tone in the original essay was more harsh toward this audience, using phrases such as, “teachers have the wrong idea.” After revisions, my tone was lighter and more logical, using phrases like, “Grade school teachers often have a difficult time expressing the joy of reading to their students.”

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

The Visual Rhetoric assignment was great practice for using illustrations in writing. I gave a thorough analysis of a thirty-six second Ad Council video. I did this by pausing the video every few seconds, taking in what I just saw, and putting it into words. This improved my ability to describe a scene in such a way that if someone hadn’t seen the video they could still visualize it with ease. Throughout this semester, I have discovered many sources that I have incorporated in my writing. In my Whitepaper, I provide a master list that contains all the sources I used in my Research Paper. For each source, I give a brief explanation of the content of the article and describe what the article proves. This was a great way to organize my sources and keep my research feeling more clean.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

I always make sure to cite my sources properly when using a quote or paraphrase from them. This can be shown in my Rebuttal Argument essay. I found an article from the Pennington Publishing Blog that describes why students don’t get much out out reading assignments when they chose their own books. I used the quote in my essay and made sure to attribute Mark Pennington in the essay. I also used proper italicization for the title of the blog. It is unfair when people take information from others without proper attribution, and downright wrong to steal someone’s exact wording. This highlights how important it is to credit sources properly. All the sources I used can also be found in my Whitepaper, along with a description of what each source contains and what they prove.

Reflective- LBirch

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

This class has given me the opportunity to learn about topics and material that I would not always think about in everyday life. All essays written in this course used Core Value One by receiving help from Professor Hodges. This class also gave me the chance to write multiple versions of each essay based on the comments given by Professor Hodges. When writing the definition argument essay, the professor gave me in-depth feedback on the first and second drafts. Another example would be for the Safer Saws assignment, the class discussed multiple videos and articles that were read and given. This taught me to look at claims and possibly find evidence they may have. As the class continues, I will be able to use this core value to improve my writing and research.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

By using Core Value Two, I learned to interpret the meaning of an argument and the message the writer may be sending. All sources used in my essays were read and closely analyzed in order to understand the information presented. Some information seemed questionable or did not have evidence to be reliable. In the PTSD claims assignment, the one source used was viewed and read to clarify the real meaning of each claim. I learned to look beyond what was actually written in order to understand the argument the author presented. Multiple sources were read, and some were not used in any essays because they did not have the valuable information needed. As various sources of information were viewed, whether they were in books or online articles, a vast amount of content was analyzed to give me needed information on a topic I was not knowledgeable in.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

A very early piece of work that was done to analyze the purpose texts was the summaries assignment. The texts read in this assignment were two counterintuitive arguments that had different meanings. Each was looked at in a different way, but the writers for both had their own side to a topic. For example, the author of the free heroin article has their side on this topic. This author showed the side of why institutions giving heroin users free heroin would be valuable. On the opposite side, an article about this may argue why it would not be valuable. I also read an article for this assignment about end of life care and how it was counterintuitive. This author argued spending money on end of life care was worth it, and should not be something you debate to spend on. With this assignment, I learned there may be many different sides to one story.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

In my visual rhetoric assignment, I needed to show my understanding of a PSA video without any audio. Visual cues and ideas are used to demonstrate the meaning of this video. The evidence I used was only based on the visuals of each frame of the video, and I showed I supported my ideas by writing based on what I saw. For example, the room in the video seemed strange; a stuffed raccoon was on the table, odd ceramic statues were around the room, etc. I used this evidence to determine the tone of the video and what the person may be saying. Another example of this core value being used was in my rebuttal essay. The sources read and used for this article supported my argument that smoke detectors actually cause fires. The sources used in this essay show evidence of how this could possibly happen and times fires did start because of them. Finding sources seemed challenging at first. After time, evidence started to accumulate that supported my argument and helped support my own ideas better.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

The white paper that was started at the beginning of the semester compiles all of my sources and articles used throughout the class. Credit is given to the authors of each source and is cited with all correct information. In all essays written this semester, citations were needed in order to appropriately use this information and materials. I summarize what the authors state, but continuously credit where I get my information from. Throughout my research paper, all information used received in-text citations, and also in a Reference section in the end. No text read should be used in one’s own writing without the appropriate citations (website received from, author’s name, date published, and date used).

Grammar Exercise- DoubleA

If a primary caretaker has a negative attitude toward their child it increases the risk that their child will grow up hostile towards others. And it’s not just aggression toward others that results from child abuse, a large amount of children raised by abusive parents also harm themselves. The reason for this negative behavior is children don’t learn appropriate techniques for handling life’s disappointments. If children aren’t raised with coping skills, they’re more likely to act “inappropriately” then if they have developed more reasonable approaches. The effect of poor parenting as reported by Dr. Geoffrey Dahmer in “The Bully Papers” is that everyone gets the child they deserve.

 

Rebuttal Rewrite – picklerick

The well-intentioned strategy of allowing students to choose their own reading material most often fails. To pad their grades, unambitious students choose easy-readers below their achieved comprehension level, while go-getters overreach, sacrificing the comprehension they need. As Mark Pennington puts the case in his article on the Pennington Publishing Blog, “Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth.” One approach to this issue is for teachers who want students to enjoy reading to let them select their own material from a list of grade-appropriate choices. This gives the students moderate choice without risk of jeopardizing learning. To encourage them to read what they enjoy, teachers can permit students to nominate new material for the list.

A better way to help these kids develop their reading skills is to assign them books that the teachers have already read. This ensures the teacher’s ability to guide their students down the right path. Another way to aid students is to teach them how to close read. Close reading is a form of reading in which the reader carefully analyzes a text in order to gain maximum comprehension from it. It shows kids how to truly read a text, rather than just skimming through it. It is an essential skill for all people, and should be juiced in classrooms of all levels for its benefits.

The best way to teach these students how to properly close read is to assign them short, nonfiction texts that challenge their ability to analyze, comprehend, and make inferences. Both the teacher and the student should analyze a reading passage and examine it for details, some of which include understanding how the text works, the author’s message, providing text evidence to support thoughts and predictions the reader is developing, and making connections between the reader and the text itself (Shanahan, 2012). As long as these methods are carried out properly, students will have the reading skills necessary to make them more successful and intelligent.

 

References

Strauss, V. (2014, September 08). Why kids should choose their own books to read in school. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/08/why-kids-should-choose-their-own-books-to-read-in-school/?utm_term=.a1d60b23343c

Pennington Publishing Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/why-sustained-silent-reading-ssr-doesnt-work/

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Shanahan, T. (2012). What is close reading? Retrieved from
http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/06/what-is-close-reading.html

Causal Rewrite – picklerick

Reading more nonfiction literature is a fantastic way to sharpen your brain. This sounds obvious, but so many people have the wrong idea when it comes to fiction vs. nonfiction. When one reads informational text, it requires careful attention and effort to be fully comprehended. Whereas when fiction or science fiction is being read, it’s likely being read purely for pleasure.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Plenty of people may read fiction with excellent focus and attention to detail. The thing is, these people are missing out on the immense amount of knowledge and understanding of the world that nonfiction junkies get to experience. Those who just read books for fun can stick to whatever they want to read, but those who are trying to get real, practical benefits from their reading should always lean toward nonfiction.

Public schooling often fails to teach the proper way to close read text. According to Ness (2011), students are struggling with close reading at an increasing rate. A few factors play into this. Kids in elementary school through high school are often given assignments where they’re asked to independently read and log a brief description of what they read in a reading journal. This sounds like a simple and reliable way to get kids into reading. In reality, though, this form of reading assignment gives adolescents major apprehension towards reading and is often the reason why they are so turned off to reading by the time they get to highschool. When kids feel forced to read, they won’t want to. This is why many schools need to rethink the way they’re teaching kids to read by focusing heavily the basics of close reading.

Caitlin Dakin states, in her thesis paper, “It is essential in today’s educational world that teachers begin to transform their classroom instruction of fiction literature into short informational complex texts to give the students the opportunity to meet the demands of the common core learning standards.” Read what you will, but be aware of how much benefit you are really getting from your reading.

 

References

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten. (2012, December 13). Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core’s Emphasis on Informational Text. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/fiction-or-nonfiction-considering-the-common-cores-emphasis-on-informational-text/

Bartlett, B. (2014, June 20). 4 Bad Side Effects of Reading Fiction According to the 19th Century. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-bartlett/4-bad-side-effects-of-rea_b_5513451.html

Self-Reflective Statement- Ugandanknuckles

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Throughout the semester, we wrote and revised different argument essays. The first draft of my rebuttal essay was repeatedly revised and strengthened as the semester progressed. As the end of the semester neared, we eventually needed to make a second draft of our pieces, and I learned I had made a lot of mistakes in my paragraphs. From using the forbidden word “y-o-u” to just general issues in how I was conveying my argument, there was a lot to fix. The drafts are hyper linked to lead to the original and corrected essays.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

I have had my professor’s help to very great extent throughout my different works. Taking a look at my rebuttal essay, we see that I was able to turn my professor’s criticisms into a revised piece. For example, I was very confused as to how to get my rebuttal essay to make sense, especially after I rewrote it entirely when I changed my topic. As it turned out, his original advice to me made more sense after reworking it from my initial topic. My rebuttal essay is hyperlinked to my rewritten version.

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

My initial writings were done from the viewpoint that mantras are garbage. After struggling with the topic for a bit, I asked people what they thought of mantras. Contrary to my initial belief, people agreed with me. After that, I changed my work to argue the opposite of what I had initially been so that I had real opposition, and that can be viewed in both my white paper and in the differences between my Causal Argument paper and my other works. All of the works mentioned are hyperlinked.

Core Value IV: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

In all of my assignments I use different sources from all over the internet. I was relatively naive when it came to the topic of mantras, so it was important for me to do my research. This is best displayed in my definition essay and my definition rewrite.  I used direct quotes from my sources to help backup my arguments, as well as make myself more knowledgeable on the topic.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

Whenever I used outside sources for my essays, I used informal citations in my essay, and then I included a works cited section at the bottom of each page. It’s important to cite your references properly as it is important to give credit to other people for their work. I used sources in all of my essays, but I used the most sources in my rebuttal rewrite essay. I made a works cited for all four of the sources I used, and I used informal citations in my works when needed.