User:Ysabella Escalona/NMAC 3108 Journal

May 29, 2019: Journal Post 1, Introduction

My name is Ysabella Escalona. I am from Venezuela and I have been living in the United States for 2 years already. The culture and the people amaze me. I am a sophomore at Middle Georgia State University and I am taking Writing for Digital Media because it is a curse that sounds interesting. I would like to work in a fashion magazine one day so this class might be really helpful for me. I am not a English native speaker so I want to learn the most and practice so that I can work in a famous magazine like Vogue one day. As I take this class I expect to improve my writing skills and learn more vocabulary as well.

My family and I moved to this country because we were in danger in Venezuela, however, even though I had to leave half of my family for my own safety I enjoy living in a country like U.S.A. because there are a lot of opportunities for everyone. I am a New Media and Communications major and that is not a good major to go for in my home country but it is good here, thus I am very happy that I can actually study what I like instead of studying something boring just to be sure I would have a job.

As I said, I am a sophomore so most of the classes I have taken are boring (math, biology, history) because they are from the core curriculum. However, I am excited because I am finally taking a class that I Think I will like. I am not sure if I can be a good writer but everything can be done with practice. I usually don't write much, just the papers and essays that I am assigned to do in college, but I want to make writing something that I enjoy and I can be good at. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 02:11, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Glad to meet you. Welcome, again, to the class. —Grlucas (talk) 15:45, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: great post! I've always wondered what being an exchange student in a foreign country would be like. I am an English major, and am required to take a foreign language. I chose to take Spanish, and since I've learned a bit, it is interesting to have a classmate whose native language is the one that I am learning. ¿Cómo te gustan los estados unidos hasta ahora? Raequel.Sank —Raequel.Sank (talk) 22:32, 2 June 2019 (EST)

Me gusta mucho, hay mucha diversidad y culturas!. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 03:25, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

June 3, 2019: Journal Post 2, Something I learned

I speak Spanish. I have been living in the United States since March 2017. When I moved here I just knew the basic stuff I learned in high school, so basically I did not know a 70% of the English rules and words that I know now. I knew that if I wanted to go to college I would have to learn the language. I started to go to English classes at CGTC and I realized that all the things I learned in high school were helpful, but it doesn't help you as much as practicing and speaking with people who knows English. In Georgia there are a lot of accents so in the beginning I was struggling trying to understand people. I am proud of myself because in 2 years I have learned so much. I still have a lot of mistakes, some times I say things like "DID you WENT to class," which is still confusing for me, and I can barely understand the letters when people spell words for me. The letters "A,E,I," are so confusing because in Spanish the "E" is pronounced as the "I"

However, I can speak better English than my parents, and that is because I practice it more. I have friends who only speak English, I have classes in English, and I work with customer service so that helps me a lot as I develop more vocabulary and perfect my grammar.

Learning a new language is not easy and it takes time, but the best way to learn is by talking. So if any of you is trying to learn a new language, my advice for you is that you should visit the country where they speak it and try to communicate in the language you want to learn. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 02:11, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

June 9, 2019: Journal Post 3, Evaluating Sources

I decided to evaluate the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park page. I noticed the article contains a lot of important details about the history of the park. It also contains information and pictures so that the people interested in visiting it can observe better. I think the article has a good amount of sources for its length. It is an article of interest to WikiProjects related to natives, historic places, and Georgia. Also, I noticed many of the sources used in the article were a little outdated. Adding new reliable sources to the wiki might be helpful because there must have been many changes and new park policies. This article should contain information about the days and hours of the park. It definitely needs more information about the celebration that is held in the park every year. This article needs improvement so that it can give the best information to the public. However, it also has the link to the park's web page, but it would be better if the wiki has all the information that the people look for. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 02:11, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Please add the article you evaluated to the WikiEdu dashboard. Be sure to revise your writing for clarity. Updates to your journal should be called ‘’’journal posts’’’ not journals. 😁 —Grlucas (talk) 15:26, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

June 9, 2019: Journal Post 4, Topic of our choice: My summer classes

This summer I am taking 3 classes, two are online and one is not. I thought online classes would be easy, they are, but there are tons of assignments and quizzes to do. You are not in a class when you can see your classmates and professor, and where you can all talk to each other about the assignments. I think maybe people are more likely to summit their assignments on the due date in a normal class rather than in an online class. This is my first time taking online classes so I hope that by the end of the semester I feel more comfortable because I am taking more online classes on fall. On the other hand, my other class where I meet face-to-face with my professor is pretty fun, I think it is also because it is a fun class where you get to edit and learn how to use Adobe Programs. I like coming to campus because I can meet more people, but on summer the campus is empty. I am looking forward to Fall semester, so that I can see my friends everyday and enjoy of the activities that MGA organizes. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 02:11, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Hi Ysabella! I get what you mean about it seeming like there are tons of assignments and things to do, but I feel like it's that way since summer classes are compressed. It is easier to make friends on a full campus though since everyone can actually see each other. NVaden (talk) 18:56, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Classes during the summer are quicker and meant to be challenging. Most advisers recommend not taking no more than three classes. Tionnetakala (talk) 00:32, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Remember that your posts should primarily be about this class. What did you learn this wek about writing? Wikipedia? —Grlucas (talk) 15:28, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

June 13, 2019: Journal Post 5, The Articles I would like to Evaluate

The three potential articles are Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, Middle Georgia State University, and High Falls State Park. I chose Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park because it is a popular park in Macon and it needs some more information. I believe it needs more details about the celebration that is held at the park every year. The Middle Georgia State University WikiPedia is very different from other universities' Wikipedia pages. MGA has little information about the academics and the degrees offered, and also it needs to be improved in the sports section. Tennis is a big thing in MGA because many international students come and play in our team. The last article, and maybe the one that needs more improvement is the High Falls State Park, it is a really short WikiPedia page, it definitely would not answer many people's questions about the park. The article that I might select is the MGA one since I can help more about it because I can get more information. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 02:11, 13 June 2019 (UTC):

@Ysabella Escalona:Out of all your article choices, I think you should actually consider High Falls State Park. That article is rated stub-class and has the least amount of information and sources so it gives you an opportunity to add more. I recommend doing research on it to see if it has the notability and has at least three reliable sources. If it does not work out, your next best bet probably would be the MGA article. While it is rated c-class under the Georgia (U.S. state) WikiProject, it is rated stub-class under the Universities WikiProject. This means there should probably be a bit of information that has yet to be added. Good luck on whatever choice you make!— Sabub (talk) 04:56, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: I'm sure you'll do fine with whatever choice you pick. --AmaniSensei (talk) 14:27, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona and Sabub: I would tend to agree: High Falls appears to need the most help. "Universities' WikiPedias" should be "universities' Wikipedia pages". —Grlucas (talk) 20:21, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: It makes sense why you chose the Ocmulgee Mounds, it is probably one of the most notable tourist locations within Middle Georgia and especially Macon. That being said, I would've like to see your contribution on High Falls State Park just because its lack of content and detail. Ousainou Adeniyi (talk) 05:07, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

June 13, 2019: Journal Post 6, Plagiarism

"Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work" I wasn't familiar to plagiarism before I started college. When I was in high school in Venezuela professors did not care about it. Copyrights and plagiarism are not taken seriously in many South American countries because police do not do anything about it. I would literally copy the exact same words from a WikiPedia page and paste them on my work without acknowledging the source and still get an A, even though all my classmates and I would have the same words in each of our papers because we all did the same. When I started college here in U.S.A. I learned how important it is that we give credit to the source where we get our information. Plagiarism is a crime, since my first semester here I started to change my habits from high school. Now I see how bad it is to take someone's work without giving them credit. I would hate if someone plagiarized my work. We are all protected if someone plagiarize us so that plagiarism is a crime, because you are basically stealing from someone. I am glad I was taught since the first day of class about the problems that copying and pasting someone's work can bring me because it has certainly help me in all my classes. In every paper or article I write for my classes I use my own thoughts and ideas, and I have noticed that my writing skills have developed much more. The more we practice writing and citations, the easier it gets for us to write our assignments. Ysabella Escalona (talk) 02:11, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Great post Ysabella. I can't imagine teachers giving As for plagiarized papers, but I totally understand why it happened where you're from. It is odd though that I think even kids here seem to believe it's not a big issue to plagiarize. The value of each individual's thoughts, studies, and effort is important, and to merely duplicate the words of another and pass it off as your own is not only a disservice to the original author and those reading your paper, but a disservice to yourself. Interesting topic choice for a journal entry, and I look forward to reading your next one. 1-800-OWLZ (talk) 02:59, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Your reference is not clear. Also, please date your journal posts using the specific day. Thanks. —Grlucas (talk) 20:22, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

June 19, 2019: Journal Post 7, Citations and Copyediting

From the feedback I have gotten on my last posts, I can see I have not been doing a perfect job with citation and copyediting articles yet. It is difficult but I am still trying to fix them and learn more about citations in Wikipedia. Something I have been doing is that I check my classmates' Wikipedia and try to understand what they did and learn from them too. I usually go back to the training pages to check the information and see if I am doing everything right, however there might be some errors because I am still learning. I hope I get better for the next journal posts.

I practice by editing my past journal posts. I try to fix them to make them look better and be well written with a good format. Hopefully my Wikipedia would improve as the semester passes on.Ysabella Escalona (talk) 17:59, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona I have struggled with some of the basics, as well, and I also found it very helpful to go back and review the Wiki Education topics. A lot of my stuff has also been practice, and I'm definitely no expert, but I do feel that I am learning quite a bit. I wish you success. LynzeeWhite (talk) 17:39, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Great! It's always good practice to edit and revise. —Grlucas (talk) 15:14, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

June 19, 2019: Journal Post 8, Topic of my choice

For my 8th journal post I have decided talk about my edits in the article I assigned myself High Falls State Park. I thought it was necessary to add more information about the park and its hours. I added just a little bit of information in the section of park information. I gathered the information from the park's web site. I plan to add more information from the web site because I think that is one of the most reliable sources of the park. The park web site was already listed on the references of the article so I did not add it again. For further edits on the article I plan to add more information about the activities that people can do at the park. One thing that I noticed while I was adding the park information is that I could not sign the part I edited.

@Ysabella Escalona WOW! It's great that you are moving ahead and editing articles. I saw on your previous post that you are having a difficult time adjusting with the new material, I am too. Something that would help is the video posted on week 4. He gave a lot of helpful tips and feedback critiquing where we may have went wrong. Goodluck! Tionnetakala (talk) 00:28, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

June 27, 2019: Journal Post 9, Topic of my choice

In this journal I am going to introduce a little bit the new article I decided to assign myself. I first assigned myself the High Falls State Park article, but after I looked up for information about it, I realized that there is not enough information. The article I decided to edit and improve is an article of a park in my hometown in Venezuela. The article is Llovizna Falls. The article is extremely short and it does not say much about it. I though that the High Falls State Park article was bad, but after I saw the one about that beautiful park in my city I realized it was way worst and I know that I can find more information about it. The city might now be very touristic right now because of the situation of the country, but the park used to be full of tourists years ago. Online there are some scholarly peer reviewed articles about the park that I might use as my source.

@Ysabella Escalona: Be sure to check your links and that you always proofread and revise. Be consistent with your journal posts, using the same headers, etc. Remember, this is a significant part of your grade, so spend time and effort on these posts and making your journal aesthetically pleasing. —Grlucas (talk) 13:56, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

June 27, 2019: Journal Post 10, Topic of my choice

I read the Wikipedia article of Writing. It tells the story of writing, the different writing systems, and how it is used today. Writing is a form of communication that dates since the Neolithic . We can inform, instruct, teach, and many other things by writing. A part that interested me a lot was the hieroglyphic, they differ a lot from what we know as writing now. Egyptians wrote their life and history in a way that we can understand today. The hieroglyphics look like drawings, so scientist and history researchers were able to decode and understand what they mean. I imagine how long it took to the ancient Egyptians to write all their fantastic history. Nowadays writing is much easier, and we can give more details. I am writing right now from my laptop and I am sure that this is way easier that making hieroglyphics in a stone. However, humans have always tried to tell their stories and thoughts, even since the early years of humanity, when we were not as advanced as we are now. Writing is an important element of human life. As I read the article I also realized that this article is very well written, it has many sources and references because it has a lot of vocabulary that is complex.

Isn't it interesting how much something like communication has changed throughout history? I think about our modern alphabet, and the history behind how we went from cave drawings and hieroglyphics to our ABC's is so fascinating. I wonder what writing will be like in a few centuries from now? LynzeeWhite (talk) 18:43, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

LynzeeWhite same! communication is going to be different, we might start communicating by codes shorter words.

July 3, 2019: Journal Post 11, Developing a Social Media Plan

Social media is used by many people all around the world. When we want to promote our company or service on social media we must be aware of the targeted audience and our goals. When I created my Facebook and Instagram page for my photography work I realized that my audience must be people that live around the same area I live in. At first, I was just interested in getting young people to follow me and see my work and I did get them. However, now that I have been doing photography for more than a year I realized that the people who would pay the most for photography services are adults.

Young Audience

Most of young people around 15-23 do not use Facebook, so I decided to focus more with my Instagram. I got a lot of people asking me for photoshoots. However, the young audience is always saving money or broke, but the photoshoots they are looking for are usually easy and do not take more than an hour. These photoshoots are usually the ones I enjoy because I make new friends and the work is simpler.

Adult Audience

The adults are the ones getting married, baptizing their children, organizing events, etc. If I want to make more money from my photography I should start advertising myself in social media that are more used by adults and also create a website so that my clients would see my work more formal.

The goals

We have a purpose when we create a social media. In my case I have own personal accounts and the ones for my photography. When I created my personal accounts my goal was to just entertain myself and find friends. When I created my account for my photos my goal was to get clients and popularity as a photographer. My new goals are to get a wider audience and do more events because those are the ones that would allow me to make more money to get better and more equipment and improve my photography skills. The main goal of any service or business to use social media is to gain popularity and clients, that was my goal, nevertheless, we must make sure to always improve and have more goals for our page.

@Ysabella Escalona: Wow! your social media platform is really in depth. I like the way you distinguished your audience from young to old. Entertainment is a good idea to keep your audience intrigued. The only time I thought about an audience was when I decided I wanted to write books. I had ideas of children books and even romance. My audience for the children books is of course children, or even young adults. My audience for the romance novel would be presented for women or even men dealing with relationship issues.Tionnetakala (talk) 20:02, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: You do a great job of breaking your audience into different markets based on their needs. What kinds of images and what captions do you/will you use to reach a wider audience and do more events? How much time a week do you suggest one dedicate to social media marketing for their business? What is the best way to get followers to participate in your posts? I am really interested in learning some tips from what has worked for you. Mightymize (talk) 13:52, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

@Mightymize: The captions for my photography page are usually songs or something simple depending on the pic, and I put a lot of hashtags that are related to photography, and that has gotten me a lot of likes and followers from others photographers. Regarding time, I should spend more time on it, my page is not big yet.

@Ysabella Escalona: You have clearly put a lot of thought into your platform! Your post has made me realize something. A few of my friends who are photographers talk about how they don't have a large client base. They take these great, artistic shots, but they don't get booked. After reading your journal entry, I think one of their issues might be that they're focusing too much on other broke college students by marketing primarily on Instagram without including Facebook (which does tend to have an older demographic). Maybe if they consider their social media presence and who they're marketing to (and who has the most disposable income to spend on their services), they might increase their odds of being hired. Have you found that Facebook helped you reach that older demographic? If not, how have you reached that group? --Sara Kathryn 05:49, 8 July 2019 (UTC) (talk)

@Cavaliergirl96: I haven't gotten an older demographic yet, but I believe facebook would help me reach it.

July 3, 2019: Journal Post 12: Topic of my choice

In this journal post I want to talk about the importance of improving Wikipedia Articles. As I mentioned in one of my previous post, when I was in high school I used to get all my information from Wikipedia. I hated when sometimes the articles were not enough for my homework because they did not have all the information I needed. When we edit articles about places that are not very famous we are adding information that can be helpful for people that plan to visit that place one day. The article I am working on, Llovizna Falls, and the article I am reviewing, High Falls State Park are articles of places that are not known by many people but still have a lot of visitors and tourist. I believe that I am helping other people interested in these articles because I am trying to add as much information as I can.

@Ysabella Escalona:I am glad that you are picking these type articles to work on to help new readers become more interesting in Middle Georgia. It more beneficial to work article like this rather than tagging some extra tidbit of information on pages like the Cherry Blossom festival. Ousainou Adeniyi (talk) 03:13, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: Good points. Be sure you're proofreading your article contributions. You've added much, but it all needs editing. —Grlucas (talk) 12:46, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

July 11, 2019: Journal Post 13: Field Trip

The 4th of July I took a trip with my friends to the High Falls State Park, it was really fun and I realized that there are many activities that people can do when they visit it. I am thinking of adding these activities to the park's wiki. It was really hot but when my friends and I got close to the water it was refreshing. I am going to add to the wiki that the best season to go is summer because you can refresh in the water and the trees are green. After I went to High Falls in Georgia, I went to Pensacola, Florida and I spent 4 days there. There were many other people visiting just for the weekend but the beaches were not too crowded. I used the free days I had from work to visit one of the places in Georgia that I am trying to get more information on, and also the beach to relax.

@Ysabella Escalona: I'm glad you got to visit High Falls and that you had a nice break! I probably wouldn't add the suggestion to go during the summer because that's subjective, but adding the activities to your article would be interesting and informative. Go for it! Best of luck with your article! --Sara Kathryn 00:42, 15 July 2019 (UTC) (talk)

@Ysabella Escalona: Visiting the place that you are editing a Wikipedia article about is an eye-opener. It allows you to take in what the place has to offer and what the main attractions are. In knowing this information, you will be able to tailor the article's content accordingly and know what to look for in more detail through the sources you acquire. Atallent (talk) 14:43, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

July 11, 2019: Journal Post 14: Struggling

As I am improving the Wikipedia page of Llovizna Falls I am struggling with finding reliable information. I found some websites of newspapers that have information of the park so I would try to use them to back up my changes on the page, I can use these newspapers to back up the section of the park's folklore. I mostly found blogs but those are not reliable so I would not use them. I am also looking up for information coming from the state government's website because there I can find information about the park's hours and services. In Galileo I did not find anything written exclusively about the park but there are some books and journals about Venezuela and its biodiversity that contains a lot of information that I can use to back up the section where I talk about the animals in the park.

@Ysabella Escalona: Finding solid resources is important. This is a real part of writing a good entry. Did you ask the MGA librarians? Keep looking. —Grlucas (talk) 12:38, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

@Ysabella Escalona: I hope MGA librarians was able to help. At the end of the day, it's how you use the information. You can have great information but if you do not use it properly then it's no good. Again, I hope you were able to get the help you need. Work with what you got, just use your imagination. I'm sure you can find some good articles and put it to great use! AmaniSensei (talk) 23:59, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

July 23, 2019: Reflective Essay

Now that the semester is over, I have learned so much about Wikipedia and I plan on keep improving more articles in the future.

Critiquing Articles

I was new to this part of Wikipedia; I have used the website for a long time when I needed information about something in history or a biography, but I never knew this part where you can edit and improve articles. I realized that writing a Wikipedia article is not an easy job because you need to be familiar with the commands and different symbol that you need when you are creating an article. However, when I used Wikipedia before taking this class, I never paid attention to the references and sources, I was always trusting on what someone else wrote. Now, I was recently reading a biography on Wikipedia and I checked their sources because I learned that Wikipedia articles are written by people like us and that sometimes the information is not reliable. I decided to approach the article I chose by reading it as a person who wants to know more about it. People always trust Wikipedia so we should make sure everything on an article responds to what someone might be looking for and that the information is reliable. The best way to decide what your article needs is by looking at it as someone who wants to know more information about it because that is how you can see what your readers would and what they need to know.

Summary of my Contributions

The article of Llovizna Falls did not say anything relevant or informative before I edited it, therefore, it looks better now, and it might be still short, but it gives the necessary information about the park. I believe my best contribution to the article was adding its biodiversity because that is something that makes the park so unique and fun for people, and also, I believe this part of the article is the one with the best sources because I used a handbook with many issues printed that talks about the animals found in each region of Venezuela, with it, I was able to identify the species that are always found in the park. The biodiversity of the park is something that can also rise the popularity and tourism of the park and the readers of the article are now able to know the species that can be found in the park. Another part that I find very informative is the Stories and Folklore of the Park because there was a tragedy that made the park more known among Venezuelans and the article did not have this before I edited it. My contributions to the article are meant to rise the park’s tourism, hopefully one day the park would be very famous. As I decided to edit this article from a place in my hometown, there was also another park that caught my attention. The Angel Falls is a waterfall in my state and it is the tallest waterfall in the world, however, this park is more known by tourists so I might edit that one later in life. I want to improve the Angel Falls article with the same goal, that is rising its popularity and tourism.

Peer Review

During the peer review I reviewed the article of High Falls State Park and I added a little bit of extra information that I found on the references that were already listed. Many of the information found on the references was useful but it was not on the article. The peer review was hard, but it helped me improve and when I started to edit Llovizna Falls I was feeling more confident with using Wikipedia. I was lucky because I had a lecture class with two classmates from this class too, so we were able to talk about each other's progress and answer the questions we had about our articles and even about how to make our article look prettier. Tionne taught me how to do many things that I always missed from the Wiki Education Dashboard and she really helped me during the semester on my journals.

Feedback

Even though I always did my journals on time, I did not get many feedbacks. Most of the time I got feedback from the professor and I always tried to fix it as soon as possible. I noticed at first that one of my problems on my journals was my grammar and vocabulary so sometimes I had other people reading my journal posts before I submitted them. When I finished editing my Article about Llovizna Falls I tried to get another Wikipedia editor to read it, but I never got a response. However, my classmates read it and have me feedback. Other than feedback, I got help from my classmates. Many times, I failed on citing my sources and I also did not know how to do it. But as the semester passed, everything that my classmates helped me with was useful and I improved my article.

Wikipedia

I used to think that Wikipedia articles were written by people who worked for Wikipedia. I thought that all the articles were written my historians that were each specialized in different areas. Recently, since this class started, I realized that everyone can be a Wikipedia editor, but we need practice to know who to be a good Wikipedia writer. The information added in articles should always come from reliable sources because Wikipedia is used by thousands of people all around the world and the must also think that Wikipedia is written by experts as I used to think. Writing and editing an article in Wikipedia is like writing and essay for a class, all the information and data must be reliable and strong enough for the article. When looking at my Wikipedia, where all my class journals are, I feel proud about myself, because it looks organized and professional as any good and reviewed Wikipedia article. This website is mostly used by people who need information, and this is a tool that can be used in any field from touristic parks to chemicals and biographies. People from all around the world have Wikipedia in common because it is a famous website that we have always trusted. I want to keep Wikipedia as a good website and source of information for other people. Even though I was using Wikipedia wrong all the time when I was in high school, its information was always right and useful.