Political Science

As I grow in interest in the field of political science research, the next logical place to look is at research journals. I found what I believe to be a leading journal for new research.

The American Journal of Political Science is, to my understanding, the scholarly journal for the political science field. The AJPS mission states that they are “committed to significant advances in knowledge and understanding of citizenship, governance, and politics, and to the public value of political science research” (About, 2013). It is published by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. Contributors are those that submit to the review process. The Journal is disseminated to members of the Midwest Political Science Association. Professionals within the field of Political Science, primarily those with Doctorates, maintain the readership. They read it to stay on point of a constant growing field of research.

I personally have not read the Journal, but as I grow in interest in political science research it will most likely become something that I become very familiar with.

Employment Projections for Lawyers

After I finish my undergraduate degree, my hope is to move forward to Law School. Law School is an intense task, and one has to be sure that they have a plan of attack to be successful in this field.

According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics there will be about a 10.1% increase from 2010 to 2012, my projected year to graduate law school is 2017. The field is growing, but not at an outstanding pace. 

To ensure that I will be apart of this 10.1%, I have to gain admission, and complete, law school first. I have a few things going in my direction; I’m a minority, disabled, veteran, from the mid-west. Along with these factors, I’m working to improve my LSAT score, my GPA, and school and community involvement. The other factor I’m working towards is my networking. I’m an outgoing person, so networking with notable alumni from schools I seek to attend, professionals in the field, and good standing with Professors will also, hopefully, help my admission into law school.

Reference: United States Department of Labor. (2010). National Employment Matrix, Lawyers. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/oep/nioem

Library Research

Each semester I usually have to sit through an hour long presentation on how the Library and it’s resources can benefit me, twice. This semester was no different. I’m not posing this as a bad thing though. Each time it happens, second year students and beyond usually moan about already doing it. The thing I’ve learned is that each time, I learn something new. The most recent was for a Professional Writing Skills class. This one exposed me to how easy it is access local media documents. The idea is, no matter how many times you do something there is always something new to learn. 

A Social Media Footprint

Being a current student that hopes to go to Law School, one of my biggest fears is my social media footprint. I attempt to balance being myself and being an academic on social media, especially twitter.

Research 20 (#research20) wrote a wonderful post called “Legal & ethical issues” that addresses the issue of legal and ethical issues regarding social media. A part they address within this post regards the impact of social media on reputation. They write ” it is important that you consider how what you write and publish online might impact on your reputation.”

My social media impact hasn’t always been the cleanest, so I make an attempt to so how I have changed over the years. For example, when I was young soldier fresh out of basic training my focus was on training during the day and comradeship during the evenings. My social media presence is best represented by the image to the left.

Presently, It looks like this

It needs to be understood that hiding a social media presence is impossible. Sites like Google store mass amounts of information. My plan is to show how I have grown over the years. From a young soldier that likes to hit the river with his friends, into a studious student of political science that focus’ on his studies. I hope to show a balance of being professional and being a real person, especially while in college.

Reference: The Team. Blogs, Twitter, wikis and other web based tools: Legal & ethical issues. Retrieved from http://research20atimperial.wordpress.com/compulsory-content/legal-ethical-issues/

A few tips to keep in mind

Throughout my academic career I have written many papers. Most of these papers were under the assumption that they would never be under the scrutiny of public eyes. Venturing into a blog brought about issues that I haven’t encountered, such as how to keep reader attention. While researching this information, I was introduced to Micheal Agger’s (2008) post on Slate called “Lazy Eyes.” He writes about the very issues that incorporate keeping reader attention and presenting online writing in a technical manner. A few of the tips he presents that I feel will be helpful –

Narrow down sections into individual thoughts.

Maintain a short word total, but connect supplementary material.

Properly exploit tags.

Hopefully these few tips, out of his many, will prove successful for this venture into blogging.

 

Reference.

Agger, Micheal (2008, June 13). Lazy Eyes. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_browser/2008/06/lazy_eyes.html