Our Citation Conventions

Citations are profoundly important for their use of building credibility. Without citations, a reader would be unable to determine the original sources and therefore be unable to trust a body of work. Also, citations are used to give credit to other authors so that we are not plagiarizing their works. Perhaps most importantly, citations leave a trail for you, the reader, to follow should you want to look deeper and do some research of your own.

Throughout the text of our blog, we will be inserting hyperlinks whenever possible to cite our sources. We will be doing this so that you will have quick and easy access to our sources if you want to know more about them. If hyperlinking a source is not possible, we will cite our sources in the MLA style. If you are not familiar with the MLA style, please read more here.

We have chosen to use this style of citation for two primary reasons. Firstly, we suspect this will be the simplest and most familiar format for you. Secondly, this format will be the easiest to construct for us, the authors. We want you to be able to focus on the material of our posts without being distracted by a complicated citation scheme.

Welcome to DearTableTwo

Coming to a large university like NC State was culture shock to us. With this blog, we want to expose high school Seniors intending to major in engineering or the sciences, like yourself, to the type of diverse subjects you will experience coming into your freshman year. We hope that by reading our writing and observing our experiences, we can better prepare you for college. This means everything we write is written for you. As you will soon see, a large university like NC State vastly differs from your local high school. Adapting to a new environment, no matter what your roots are, can be difficult. All of us wished we had more exposure to college culture prior to coming to NC State. We hope that this blog will give you the exposure that we wish had prior to coming to NC State.

Throughout the course of this blog, we will be delving into a veritable smorgasbord of topics, starting with scientific controversy. For this first piece, we will be exploring the arguments of an author in order to form our own counter-arguments. We will then transfer into our own lives, making a pod cast on some culture we find ourselves a part of. Our third post will be a historical analysis in which we evaluate the deeper meaning in a piece of artwork. We will be creating a Prezi presentation in which we support the claim we believe our artist is trying to make. Finally, we will analyze the writing of two authors from different disciplines writing on the same subject. We will be finding the differences between these two authors’ rhetorical strategies, and then discussing implications of such differences.

All of the authors of this blog are college freshman, as you soon will be too. In particular, we are all first year students at NC State majoring in engineering or the sciences. We want to share our insight into adapting to college through our writing. Below, each of us has included a short biography to help you get to know us. Click on one of our images in the top left corner to jump to one of our biographies!

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My name is Cameron Gardner and I am from Greensboro North Carolina. I attended Southeast Guilford High School where I excelled in academics and athletics. I played travel baseball going to colleges all over the east coast visiting and playing baseball. I played varsity football all four years of my high school career and could have continued playing in college yet I decided to attend NCSU instead. I was awarded the Corrigan-Faircloth Chapter of the National Football Foundation Scholarship my senior year, along with the “Heart of a Falcon” award making me the only to receive it in my graduating class. Athletics has always played a huge role in my life, teaching me lifelong lessons. Respect, determination and perseverance are traits which I gained through hard work in and out of the classroom.

I am currently a second semester freshman at NCSU in the engineering department with intent to enter either Mechanical or Aerospace engineering. The power to decide my own future is overwhelming. I guess at multiple points in everyone's lives we have to take a leap of faith into unknown waters. The remainder of this semester will be my first leap of faith and this blog will follow me along the way. I will attempt to present controversial information in a professional yet encouraging manner in which I will express my opinions and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.

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My name is Brodie Ford, i’m 18 years old from Morganton, North Carolina, i’ve been living the small, southern, town life since I was born up until the past few months. Recently I have been attending North Carolina State University as a freshman working towards a degree in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation.

Leading up to this big change of scenery was basically how one would expect it to be; I was successful academically in high school, accomplished in extra curricula's, and involved in service around my hometown. All of this led me to now be in college and experiencing so many various peoples, cultures, beliefs, and general ways of life that are completely different from what I was used to back home. I am just taking each day one at a time, experiencing all the I can on this phenomenal ride called life. I am excited to be able to share with you all this blog and hope you find reading it to be worthwhile.

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My name is Ryan Brentley West. I was born June 13th, 1996 in the town of Fletcher, N.C. I spent most of my time working with my hands, especially building structures and tinkering with the household electronics. This was the start of my fascination with technology. By high school, I had taught myself basic computer programming and had become the local technology guru, disassembling computers to get a better understanding of their inner workings. I left a trail of academic success everywhere I went leading to my acceptance to the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM).

At NCSSM, I continued to excel academically. In addition to this, I also became involved in several organizations. By his senior year at NCSSM, I had secured several leadership positions including Animal Welfare Club President, Lacrosse Club President, Badminton Club President, and Resident Life Assistant. During his time at NCSSM, I gained the leadership experience as well as the knowledge of modern technology he would need to succeed in college. Last year, I was admitted to North Carolina State University in the College of Engineering. In addition to this, I was invited to be a Goodnight Scholar for the class of 2018. I am currently in my freshman year at NCSU, majoring in Computer and Electrical Engineering and minoring in Philosophy.

I am the youngest of five brothers. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, which has lead to my passion for the outdoors. I ran cross country and played lacrosse in high school. At NCSSM I began playing a myriad of sports, including ultimate frisbee, badminton, and racquetball. I have recently begun road cycling. This past August, I asked my girlfriend, Sara Garrison, to marry me after dating for five years. She also attends NCSU and is attending the Poole College of Management. We live together off campus and commute to school.

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My name is Ashton Larkin. I am currently a freshman at North Carolina State University, and I plan on studying mechanical engineering. My career goal is to be a part of (or even lead) an R&D team for any major company. I take a lot of interest into design, math and science. I graduated from Sanderson High School in 2014 with the honor of being in the top 10% of our graduating class. I love sports, and I play golf and basketball as a hobby.

I have 2 siblings, and I am the middle child (one younger sister and an older brother). My older brother is a current student here at NC State, studying plant biology. I have a mixed background, with my father being from the west coast and my mother being from Spain. I was born in Miami, Florida and lived there until I was 11. I then moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and I have been a Raleigh boy ever since! I have taken multiple physics classes, and I love how these concepts apply to the world around us on a daily basis – especially in sports. I love the funny side of things, and I tend to not get worked up over breaking news or popular contradictory topics. I hope you enjoy the blog!

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My name’s Charlie Luo, and I was born on June 1st, 1996. I spent a lot of time playing the piano as a child because my parents made me. I didn’t like playing instruments at first, but it helped me develop an interest in music and attention to detail, which became the foundation for many of my endeavors later on. In middle school and high school, I participated in various musical events to pass the time and won several music-related awards, and completed an after-school program, Kumon, which strengthened my academic skills.

In high school, I spent a lot of time with my church. I became the keyboardist for the youth group, and went on some mission trips. I also started learning to play the guitar, because I got tired of only playing the piano. During the summers, I accompanied my dad to his research lab, where I got hands-on experience with a wide range of technology, including computers. I was admitted to North Carolina State University as a business major, but I’m currently transferring to NCSU’s College of Engineering as a computer engineering major.

As a person, I usually don’t have much to say. That’s about it. Well that’s enough about me, hope you enjoy the blog.