Extra Credit Walk to the Silo

On Tuesday afternoon I decided to go to the silo and take my pictures.  I went and took the picture with the Silo after I ate diner in the dining hall.  I brought a peanut butter cookie with me, which made the walk more pleasant. Once I had that cookie, I knew it was going to be a good start to my picture-taking extravaganza.  The only downside to the walk was that it started to rain a little and I did not have my rain jacket.  I went with my boyfriend Cole after he got out of football practice because I needed someone to take the picture.  I did not want to be a loner and use self-timer.  He took the picture of me in the silo and then I made him take one too because I did not want him to feel left out.  Then we walked to the library and started the search for the P211.T45 book.  We walked around the reference area searching for this book, but could not find it anywhere.  Then I had the brilliant idea to ask the librarian if she knew where the book was.  Thankfully librarians know everything when it comes to libraries, and said the book was at her desk.  Unfortunately, the book was checked out.  This was very upsetting news.  I went back a couple more times that day, and it was checked out every single time.  I was quite devastated.     The next morning after practice then breakfast, I went with my friend James to see if the book was back.  Thankfully, the librarian said she had it and I got to take my picture with the book.  It was a pretty cool book and had so many signatures inside of it.  Overall I would say that this was a pretty neat extra credit assignment. 

Trip to the Library

I went to the library on Tuesday afternoon for about an hour and searched the library for information and books on steroids.  In complete honesty, that was my first time in the library this entire school year.  I was not exactly sure how, or even where, to begin my research.  I talked to the librarian for a couple minutes and she explained how to find books in the library and how to figure out where I was in the first place.   She also reminded me about the online catalog that the Clemson website offers for the library.  This was extremely helpful for finding the sources I needed to get. 

            The first thing I did in the library was go to the fifth floor and get on my laptop.  I opened up the Clemson website and got onto the library catalog portion of the site.  I went to the search bar and typed in steroids in sports.  Several results came popping up, showing me that there were available books on steroids in the library.  Several of the books that were visible were electronic resources.  I opened up a few of these sources and read about them to see if I could use any of the information for my paper.  Many of the electronic books that I opened were very essential to my topic and I was able to use this information for brainstorming body paragraph topics.  After getting information from a couple of these electronic resources, I made a list of the topics I want to discuss in my research paper.  I used this list to narrow down my sources that I continued to look for.

            I found a hard copy of a book that I think will be useful when writing my research paper.  I had to go to the federal documents section of the library and search for a document that was a hearing before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House of Representatives.  I skimmed through the book and saw some good information that would help me when trying to validate a point I make in my paper.  I decided that the smartest decision would be for me to check the book out, so I brought it the front desk and did so.  After I checked the book out I looked around some more for other books on steroids, but most of the other books were not as beneficial to my paper as the ones that I already saw.  My trip to the library was quite successful and I am glad that I finally know how to maneuver around and find books on my own.

Freewrite for the Research Paper

            My research topic is going to be the use of steroids in sports.  This can range from high school athletes using steroids, to collegiate athletes, and even professional athletes and players.    I will include specific examples of different sports to show that the topic is relevant in sporting events.  Marion Jones is a track athlete that used a certain type of steroid and got her Olympic medals taken away from her and her team.  She acclaimed that she did not know she was given steroids, so I can include the different forms of steroids in this portion of the paper.  Steroids can be in the form of a pill, oil, and several others.  Another specific example to use can be Barry Bonds.  Steroids are popular in baseball and in this portion of the paper I can include the relevance of steroids in baseball and how Barry Bonds used them.  I can include statistics about the prevalence of steroids in different sports.  I can say which sports are more prone to use steroids and which sports have the most steroid abusers.  After using examples I can talk about the reasons to why people use steroids in the first place.  I will talk about how they enhance performance and can increase a person’s performance.  After I say the positive effects they can produce, I will talk about all of the negative effects that come with steroids.  I can talk about how they can hurt a person’s health lifelong and people may also have the chance to become addicted to them.  Other information that I can include in the paper can be the legality of steroids and how people can be hurt badly from the law and sporting officials by using steroids.  Athletes can be kicked off their sports team if they take steroids in college and professional athletes can get their accomplishments and medals stripped from them if they test positive for steroids.  There are other topics to include for steroids, like the cost of them and where people can purchase them.  Steroids are harmful to the human body and have high prevalence in different sports.

            I will find sources from several different resources.   One source I could use will be books describing the definition of what steroids are. I will find books that describe the positive and negative effects that steroids can bring.  I can also use articles that say specific examples of steroid use.   Online resources could be more helpful for finding more recent statistics and other information that books or articles may not have.  I could also interview athletes and coaches and ask them about their take on steroids and if they have ever used them. 

            Problems that I may run into when doing this research paper could be finding enough information for each topic I want to talk about.  Also, for the interview part that I may want to include, people may lie about their take or if they have used them because they know that most steroids are illegal.  This could be true for all statistics I want to look up, including online resources.

Timeline

2-15-12 Have four sources found and cited

2-17-12 Freewrite due

2-20-12 Have ten sources found, no more than 1-2 popular sources

2-29-12 Annotated Bibliography due

3-7-12 Outlines for pier review due

3-16-12 First draft due

3-26-12 Research log due

3-30-12 Final draft due