Week 5

 I’m not gunna lie; it’s pretty awesome to be done with a class already.  Overall, I found this class to be very helpful.  I will most definitely be using the techniques that we learned in class to help do my research on future papers.  To me, the most helpful thing that we learned about is the databases.  The databases seem to contain a huge amount of credible information that can be accessed whenever I need, and I don’t have to worry about it being checked out by someone else.  Another extremely useful thing we learned about was how to evaluate whether or not a source we find is credible.  This comes in handy if I am struggling to find enough information in the databases and need to use Google to find what I need to write my paper.  There were obvious signs, like if the website simply looked reliable, and other hints that I never thought to do, like doing a quick search on the author to see if they actually know what they are talking about.  Being able to evaluate a source is one of the most important things that we learned in class.  Another, equally important, thing we learned about in class was plagiarism and copyright laws.  Bonnie and Amanda did an excellent job of explaining what we had to cite and what we had to do to make sure we weren’t posting something illegally or copying someone else’s work and committing plagiarism.  I think that both Amanda and Bonnie did an outstanding job teaching everything that we went over in class.  I’m really glad I took this class, because I think that it will help me a lot in my academic future here at Penn State.  I would like to wish all of you good luck with the rest of your time here at Penn State, and don’t be afraid to say hi if one of you runs into me around campus. Stay Classy Penn State.