No Point In Copying

“Copying is bad, it’s a bad sign of character!”  My third grade teacher would constantly remind us whenever she would assign a writing assignment or research paper.  Her saying was annoying, but it did get the point across.  The article, “They Said It So Much Better. Shouldn’t I Use Their Words?” makes a valid point. Sometimes when you are lost for words, and you read something from the textbook that basically says everything you yourself couldn’t form into a sentence, you’re just like, “I couldn’t have said it any better than they already did.”  In those moments you have to take a step back and realize that if you copy that sentence and get caught, you will forever be known as the plagiarizer, and no professor will ever trust you again.  It’s the sad fact of life.  Instead you could paraphrase the sentence like the article, “What Is a Paraphrase, Anyway?” suggests, but just be careful because even then, paraphrasing is a little iffy.  Another thing to make sure of, in an essay you don’t want it to consist of entirely paraphrased sentences, you want your own writing in there and only paraphrase or put a direct quote when necessary, like when trying to provide evidence for a topic.  If you do use a direct quote, be sure to cite where exactly you found it and give the original author credit they deserve.  Don’t plagiarize, because the chances of being caught are a lot higher than not being caught and you don’t want to get expelled from school for copying because that’s just sad and embarrassing…just saying.

The Librarian's Library and Other Things

This week in INT 95, our guest speaker was Mrs. Jane Faulkner.  Mrs. Faulkner is one of the many librarians for our university library. There are many academic librarians who are specialized in such things as, collection development, scholarly communication, outreach, and reference. I was astonished to learn that our library is the second largest in the country, next to the Library of Congress. 

The librarian’s story about her life was interesting, to say the least.  She grew up around the Claremont Colleges, but also lived in London where her father worked for a while.  After, she shared her life in college at UC Davis and then proceeded to share the many great resources the library has to offer.  Mrs. Faulkner said there were catalogs to search from, laptops that can be checked out, free massages, and the best of all, a snack bar in case you get hungry while cramming... I mean peacefully studying.  The most interesting fact I learned in that 50-minute period before dinner was that UCSB has an event every year where one book is chosen, and 2,000 copies are handed out for free to students, and then there are panels and discussions about the book later on. It all sounded like such fun.

We recently took a trip to the Career Counseling Center, which was very informative.  There you can find out about openings for full time positions, part time positions, and internships. For those people who are undeclared or just on the borderline of what they want to major in, the Career Counseling Center is the perfect place to go because the employees there can help you figure out which major is right for you.  If they aren’t able to help, the wall of books on majors can be another option. And a last effort might be just blindly pointing at a major from the list and hoping for the best, but I suggest you don't try that.   

My Day at the Fair

So this wonderful campus has more to it than just a beachfront view. Who would have known? The Student Resource Building (SRB) for one is amazing! The beautifully designed structure makes the building look like a piece of modern art.  Once inside the SRB, you can find just about anything necessary for making your stay at UCSB the best.  From the Woman’s Center with its message chairs and private library, to the many different cultural centers, the SRB is a warm and welcoming environment perfect for relaxing or having your questions answered.

There are so many ways to meet new people in college. One way is being courageous enough to go up to a random person and introducing yourself, but for some that is harder than it sounds.  No worries though, there are plenty of other ways to find friends who have similar interests.  Joining clubs, sports, the Greek life, or even doing your laundry can be a way to meet others. Who knows, you might meet your new best friend when you’re waiting for your laundry to dry. By the way, make sure to take a book or something because it honestly takes forever and day.  The best way however, to get to know others is by attending class.  Also, when you are in class and you don’t understand a topic you can always be resourceful and ask others for help, attend office hours, or better yet, try going to CLAS, that’s where they can really help you.  I found out CLAS is offered in the Student Resource Building, just saying.

The Major and Minor fair was interesting, but if you didn’t attend, you didn’t miss much.  Not all the representatives from the different majors/ minors were there, but then again that would take up more than just the San Nic lawn.  Although, the presenters who did go were all very cordial and answered any questions, not to mention they gave out tons of flyers packed with information and some even gave out candy.  Thanks Chicano/Chicana Studies for the sour patch strips! I was surprised and extremely bummed to find out that my major was not offered here under the umbrella of Psychology, but the nice man at the Psychology table directed me to the Academic Advising table to check. There, I was given more bad news; I was told speech pathology was recently removed as a minor as well. Great. It’s all good though, my backup major was Child Psychology…hopefully that’s still offered.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Christina Garcia and I along with my older brother am second generation Mexicans from Los Angeles, California, but to be more specific Pico Rivera.  Growing up in Pico was great; the community was small and predominately Latino, which in a way limited my exposure to other cultures.  Other than that it was awesome, especially having Mexican restaurants on every corner.  I graduated from El Rancho High School, and the funniest thing is that every non Spanish speaker I share that with will comment,” Oh my God! Is your school’s name really in Spanish?” I started taking tennis lessons at the age of six and was able to play for my school’s varsity team for three consecutive years.  I loved high school, but moving away to college was a whole new experience.  I chose UCSB based on its location near the beach and my older cousin’s high recommendations.  I am majoring in speech pathology in order to work with young kids to overcome their speech impediments and help them boost their self-esteem.  Many people often question why I chose this major.  My reason why is always the same, I chose it because I saw the struggle my favorite younger cousin faced each and every day of his life when he tried to communicate with either adults or kids.  Most of his peers would tease or make fun of him because they couldn’t understand what he was saying and adults would ignore him for the same reason.  It was disheartening to see him struggle with something so simple as talking when most of us just take it for granted.  I want to be able to help kids like my cousin and UCSB will help me obtain the necessary tools to help these young kids. My first week at Santa Barbara has been much better than I anticipated and hopefully the year will continue as so.