Postion paper: The hunt for literature.

For my position paper I decided to pick a topic that I have not previously written about: vaccinations.  Being a vaccination supporter, I considered it to be "right up my alley"; however, this was before I had read the instructions to the assignment properly.

The paper is not on "should we or should we not vaccinate our children", but on whether or not we  should keep the current vaccination schedule or change the rates and times of these vaccinations.

So, after mind mapping some ideas I realised I had no idea on the 21st century vaccination process in New Zealand.  First stop was the Ministry of Health website for the current vaccination schedule. This gave me some very pretty coloured pamphlets to download.  Next I set off to the Massey library database to find some real, nitty gritty, scholastic information.  I started by typing "vaccine  AND schedule AND Zealand"; to my surprise this did yield some good results with quite a few peer reviewed articles about the vaccination schedule/rates in New Zealand. However, I did have a problem finding opposing positions to the topic. So I tried a search in the database for anti-vaccine which did not return great results.

I set about getting the opinion of some anti-vaccine
lobbyists to help me in my search for opposition
papers.

This was a turn in the wrong direction and an hour of my life I will never get back.

I then had a thought to look on the World Health Organisation website for inspiration and realized that their recommendations and reasoning were different to the proposed changes made by the New Zealand authors. This has given me a more balanced view for my position paper.

The mistake I made while researching this topic was that I was looking for some big opposition paper saying "You should definitely not do this", when really I should have just looked at what are the vaccination recommendations by world standards, and why ours should or shouldn't change.

Welcome to my very first blog post.

I am currently a student of communication in the sciences 119.115.  My first assignment is to write a brief introduction of myself, so please make some popcorn, sit back and enjoy!

I live in the picturesque town of Taupo with my partner of five years,  two beautiful step children, and two very silly cats.

The Addams family

Wally 3yrs Jubie Boos 14yrs

I am currently a distance student at Massey University, majoring in psychology, however, this may change as I am not entirely sure where my studies are going to lead me.  
My main interests lie in the sciences, particularly biology and neuroscience, although I do have some attraction to criminal justice and human resources.  A bit of a strange mix. I know.

The biggest reason I decided to return to study is my health. I have always had jobs of a physical nature, however after two reconstructive surgeries on both knees it has become struggle for me, and I don't see myself being able to maintain a physical job for the rest of my life.  My high school years consisted of lunch and daydreaming, so I don't have many useful qualifications. I hope that my study will lead to job opportunities that are ultimately rewarding and do not further compromise my physical health.

My biggest ambition at this stage is to pass and not lose my mind doing so.

I already juggle a job, two kids and dyslexia. I have only been a full time step mum for 2 years and having no children of my own, every day brings new challenges!
Dyslexia is my biggest frustration when it comes to study. I struggle with remembering the rules of grammar and punctuation, and to top this off I am a terrible proof reader.  I am also not a quick reader and my brain works in pictures, this makes ideas and thoughts hard to translate into spoken words or written prose.

The papers I am currently enrolled in over the summer, are "anatomy and physiology" and communication in the sciences 119.115.

I am very nervous about my communications paper, to a dyslexic person it's probably our worst nightmare! There is a lot of reading and writing, with the need for proper punctuation - yikes!.  I do know it will give me a helping hand in constructing my wayward thoughts into organised and readable material for future essays and lab reports, so it must be good for me.

I am proficient with technology and a perceptive, critical thinker, which I think will be beneficial when it comes to the group assignments set for us in the communications paper.

Again my major weakness in my communications paper would have to be punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure. I cannot get my head around English rules, I have learned many times but for the life of me cannot remember a single thing!  I did watch the video links about commas, semi colons and colons but it is still very alien to me.

It is my hope that paper 119.115 will provide me with the tools to be able to write proficiently, and therefore increase my confidence when written communication skills are required in future roles.