Essay 2

When I first read the prompt for the second essay my first thoughts were mixed. One of them was, "oh yeah, I can do this piece of cake" and the other was, "wait, how ARE these related????"... yes with four question marks, each one progressively growing with each second added pondering to the train of thought.
Then it came down to writing. So, I first read all three readings and then just let my brain do the work while i stared at the wall.

I took out a piece of paper and wrote down what I thought the first reading was about and the main emphasis. After, I did the same for the other two and then just thought again. I reread all three and then wrote down what they had in common. I didn't find it particularly difficult after I wrote down the ties between them and just thought about how I could word it. Sometimes I feel how things are related but can't really explain it properly. Once I got my main idea, I looked through the parts of the readings that grabbed my eye aggressively and wrote down the quotes that went with it.

At first I thought, "oh man, how am i supposed to write about three articles without losing focus?" I didn't want my paper to experience the "tree in the middle of the ocean" phenomena. Then I thought about just writing the main things and then adding meat to the bones. I worked information back into the paper to make sure I wasn't losing focus. I felt that it really helped to stay on track. It made the writing process more enjoyable and I actually took less time writing this essay than the first because I felt like I had direction with this essay more.

The mistake I keep making is quoting. I have a habit of quoting things I think are useful so I quote quotes. Big mistake. After this essay's conference, I feel like I learned what to do now. I like that feeling. Other than that citing in general isn't much of a problem. The problem is what I cite. But now I  have the handle on not quoting quotes so I cite the right source. Good deal.