Paraphrasing

1.) the difference between Plagiarizing and paraphrasing is that in plagiarzing you just copy and paste the words and say that it is you. Also sometimes someone can use the same work but just change a couple words (that is still plagiarizing). Although in paraphrasing you read, skim through the work and write in YOUR OWN words.

2.) How to Paraphrase:

1. Find a website that has great information on the topic you are working on.
2. skim or read through a paragraph you need to use for your post or work.
3. find a couple words that you think are major points that you need.
4. then use the words that you thought were important , and put them into your own words.
5. you can also make a link or write their name from the site/person you got the information from. that tells the reader were you got the information from and to check that site out.

3.) Here's an example of paraphrasing:

The paragraph Im going to paraphrase.

They were clever people. They adapted to their environment. They built canoes to fish and hunt. They filled the marshes with a combination of reeds and stones and dirt to create more farmland. They built dams and dikes to free even more land. Their engineers successfully built a bustling city, with wide plazas and many shops, on a swamp.


Paraphrased:

The Aztec people were very smart. They were adapted in the their environment by fishing and hunting. They had a very special way to create farmland, they filled marshes with reeds, stone and dirt. To get more space ion their land they built dams and dikes. The engineers built a busy city with wide plazas and many shops, on their swampy land.


http://www.aztec-history.com/ The link of the website were i got the paragraph.


4.) I think I paraphrase pretty well, although i get stuck on a few sentences easily. The part in paraphrasing that i have difficulty is putting it into my own words.

The Aztecs

Aztecs

In this post I'm writing about the Aztecs, because in class we will be learning about them. I'll be writing about their Geography, Technology, religion and culture.                                     
                                                      Geography:
The Aztecs civilization was very dependent on where they lived. The Aztecs made their home in Mexico. They lived in the mountains and near swampy land. The Aztecs did not always live in Mexico, as they wandered through the desert for about 150 years before settling permanently in Tenochtitlan, which was near Lake Texcoco. 

Technology:

The Aztecs had very different kinds of technology then we do now, although some of their technologies they invented we somewhat use today, such as farming, calendars, trading and medicine. Some other inventions that they had were, their language, writing, agriculture, glyph's, flutes,canoes for transportation and there aqueducts. Some of there inventions were made out of bone, stone and obsidian.
     
I was reading Naheed's post and I learned that the Aztec people made chocolate! and that it was also used as currency. They used chocolate for a spicy hot chocolate drink for the upper classes. They                                                       also made made gum from an sapodilla tree.



Religion:
For the Aztecs, religion was very important in their life. They worshiped many gods, and for these gods they would sacrifice human blood. The sacrifice of blood for them was so the gods would be happy and they would give them things back. Four examples of their gods were Huitzilopotchli (Tribal God), Tezcatlipoca (lord of the night), Quetzalcoatl (God of wind),Tlaloc (God of rain).

The Aztecs had a temple, it was used when the emperor  would go on top of it and ''talk to the gods''. The emperor was the one who would go up, because he was the second highest status on their Social Hierarchy.

                                                       Culture:
Their culture was filled with creativity and beauty. Also their culture was also based on art, music, poetry & tattoos. Most of their culture was expressed through their religion and warfare. In   their culture there were rituals, sacrifices, architecture, style of buildings,and science.For the Aztecs education was only given to kids who's family could afford it.

This mini paragraph i paraphrased from Neliufar'  post.
 Men in the aztec time were mostly farming and the boys would trade,fight and become great leaders. Although women would only cook, weave and run a house.

I was looking at Alma's post and i found out that the Aztecs farmed squash, beans,corn,chillies,peppers, and tomatoes.





These are some links to the websites I used.
http://www.aztec-indians.com/aztec-technology.html

https://bmssancientcivilizations.wikispaces.com/Aztecs

http://www.ducksters.com/history/aztec_empire/writing_and_technology.php

Inequality for all

About the documentary:

The film was directed in 2013 by Jacob Kornbluth. The film examines the widening of income gap in the united states. The documentary was presented by Robert Reich, an American economist, author and professor. 

What is happening with the distribution of wealth?

People are not receiving the equitable amount of money. The rich are receiving more, middle class are receiving the same money as the poor and the poor are receiving nothing that they need. The middle class should sound like its moving up, but really its down sizing to the poor.

This is a graph for the distribution of wealth in America. The bottom one is how america's distribution should look like. The middle one is what American's think the distribution of wealth looks like. And the top one is the actual distribution of wealth looks like.

Why is this happening?

This is happening because the rich are hoarding the money, but not spending it fast enough.
The middle class are taxed the most , while the rich are giving less taxes. Which is not fair at all, because the rich should be giving the most money.


 The virtuous cycle, is a cycle that is better for workers for things like; Productivity growth, wage increase, workers buy more, companies hire more, tax revenue increases, government invests more and the workers are better educated,

 The vicious cycle, is a cycle that is creating problems for workers such as; The wages stagnating, the workers buy less, companies downsizing, tax revenues decreasing, government cutting programs, workers being less educated, and unemployment rising.





Is this a problem?    

Yes this is a problem because the governments needs money to build schools, hospitals, roads etc. But if the middle class aren't able to pay the taxes, and the rich don't pay that much.then the government will start cutting programs.

Debt:

In America the poorest people have the most debt in the whole country because they take money from cash stores, or ''borrow money'', also gambling is another way to be in debt. When they borrow money they usually don't have money to give back, and when they have more bills to pay they borrow more, and more. Eventually they would be stuck in the ''Debt Cycle''. An example of the debt cycle is in  the book Scarcity with Sandra who was in the debt cycle. In 2006, there were more then 23,000 payday lenders branches in the United States, which was more then all McDonald's (12,000) and Starbucks (9,000) locations combined.


Democracy:

A system of government by the whole population or all eligible member of the state (+18), typically through elected representatives. (The United States of America)




Plutocracy:

A country or society governed by the wealthy. (Roman Empire)


Differences of democracy and plutocracy:

Only the wealthy can govern that area.



*Right now we are in a: Democracy


*It feels like a: Plutocracy


*We should be living in a: Democracy


The reason why it feels like we are living in a plutocracy is because lobbyist are paying money to the politicians to influence them. Then after the politician wins they would ask for the favor back.