Spring Break Post #3 (Essay?)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-charged-murder-trayvon-martin-killing/story?id=16115469#.T4sBLFEV2jN

Justice should always be served with no discrimination and no hesitation. This applies in the on going case of Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman. On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. Martin was walking back from a convenience store holding candy and a drink in his hands, Zimmerman allegedly shoots Martin in self defense. For the rest of that month, no charges were filed. And Trayvon Martin's family and friends mourned while no justice was served.
It didn't take too long for the public to react. All throughout the month of March, there were several peaceful protests and online support. Dozens of people even wore hoodies and carried skittles and a bottle of Arizona iced tea to respect this tragic young death. Finally after millions across the nation cried for justice, the FBI decided to open its own investigation on the case. Lots of people believed Zimmerman should've been arrested a while ago, he killed an innocent teenager. But evidence was still inconclusive as to weather Zimmerman was guilty or not. And witnesses said two different stories.
The reason Zimmerman was not arrested in the beginning was because evidence was unclear. Multiple witnesses confirmed that Zimmerman was in fact attacked by Martin, so he fired his gun in self defense. Also, there was no physical evidence that Zimmerman was telling the truth either. Lots of media has brought attention the notion that Zimmerman wasn't prosecuted because he killed a black/African American boy. But now publicists are saying this case had absolutely nothing to do with racism. Nonetheless, George Zimmerman was actually arrested after 3 months that is--on April 11th, 2012, he was charged with second degree murder.
I still standby my saying that justice should be served no matter what. It didn't matter that Trayvon Martin was black and the George Zimmerman was hispanic. It didn't matter if Martin had past histories of suspensions or drug charges. The only thing that mattered was the truth. An innocent life was lost, due to a careless man with a gun. And the fact that the public supported justice through this whole case is really fascinating.

Spring Break Post #2 (Plagiarizing)

In Mrs. Galangs post about plagiarism, what the student did wrong was basically copy and paste someone elses words. He/She could've included the text as a quotation then in order to cite the source correctly. He/She also did not acknowledge that this text was written by a different author thats not themself. If the person wanted to incorporate a piece of text from this website, he/she should've written it like so;

To begin explaining this painting, its basically a mysterious nighttime scenery. "There is the night sky filled with swirling clouds, stars ablaze with their own luminescence, and a bright crescent moon," (A Brief Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings) 

There are many ways to avoid plagiarism. One way is to always cite your source, even if you just summarized what the article/text said. Also, make sure to only rely factual evidence instead of opinion (when researching), which should obviously come from you. And its okay to include other authors voices, if you put it in as a quote. 

Spring Break Post #1 (Good Blog Posts)

One blog post I enjoyed reading was Aidan’s. He wrote about the book “Unwind” by Neal Shusterman. I liked the way he explained each of the three main characters, he started out by telling their background story then saying how they all connect. He also used quotes from the text to explain his thoughts on the characters. This probably helped him understand the point of view of each character in a better sense.
Another blog post I liked was Joyce’s. She summarized one of the many themes in “The Hunger Games” by Suzzane Collins. I thought this post was really good because she compared and contrasted Gale and Peeta. She listed reasons why Katniss would choose either one, but also why she would choose them as well. And she gave clear examples to explain her thoughts.
Some things I can improve on in my blog entries, is I can include more quotations. And I can also find a way to connect with the characters or plot more. I feel that if I find a way to know the character more, their actions will make more sense to me. So it’s a good method to use if you want to fully understand your book.