Each assignment I have carried out over these past six weeks has helped me grow as a writer. I use to write all the time. I have loved writing classes over literature classes, most of my life. In fact I have a foot locker filled with copious amounts of composition notebooks, exploding with expository essays and poetry. Yet, as I took a break from school and began a career, the writing became less until it was finally diminished. While taking this course, my brain struggled with, once again finding the phrases that could best capture what I was trying to say. I did not want to sound like I have not written a paper in six years, and that was a constant challenge. This English class also consisted of a type if writing I do not have much practice with. Definitions of types of Rhetorical Analysis were new to me and I had to spend extra time learning and understanding these concepts.
As we have progressed through the assignments I feel I have progressed in my writing. With each essay I became more confident. In this final essay my writer's block, which has held me back for so long, finally opened up. Maybe a little too open as my final essay is very long...but it just happened, as though the writing flood gates were opened. It was a fun and adventurous process.
The method which works best for my own writing is definitely brain storming, or free- writing. I make a list of all the things I want to write about and then just let whatever comes out of my head, be put on paper. I force myself not to correct anything as I write, just to keep going until I feel there is nothing left. What starts as a paragraph about one thing might turn into 2 pages pertaining to something completely different. After an hour or so of this, I go back to find what I wrote the most about. I consider whatever idea I produce the most well written substance for, is the showcasing of what my brain finds most inspirational. If it turns out that it works for the type of essay I am writing, I will choose that to be included in my final work.
Most of my writing I feel, is private. Sharing my writing is always difficult for me. I would prefer sharing a finalized draft over a rough draft. I almost feel more exposed if the essay is too new and unedited. I loved work shopping, peer’s essay. In becoming a teacher, it resembled grading papers, which I enjoyed. Sadly with it being the last week I felt like my own paper to be work shopped was not given proper attention. I would have loved to have had it done sooner. As a result, I do not feel like it helped me all the much.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Preface
Getting started. That's always the most difficult part.
I've always written a lot, for a number of reasons. I'm a visual person; I make lists, I take notes. I also grew up without the internet until I was twenty years old. So I wrote my fair share of postcards and letters to grandma and my friends when I was young (a long, long time ago). I'm also a musician and a shower singer, and as such I have the unevitable plethora of original compositions and lyrics hidden in a drawer somewhere. They were of course all meant to be number one hits had I only managed to write more than a few verses of each. In elementary and junior high school, one of my favorite activities in French class was creative writing. I've always loved words. I would keep my favorites listed in a little notebook: pleiad, farandole, tintinnabulation and other ukuleles. My mother still sends me the latest version of the French dictionary every few years.
Over the years though, with the advent of email and instant messaging, I have--like most--succombed to the temptation of simplified written exchanges, one-sentence updates and internet-specific acronyms. Getting back into composing proper essays and reclaiming what used to be my style has proven to be a bit of a challenge. But it feels great to spend time rediscovering the mental processes that transpose my thoughts into written words.
Going back to academic writing has confirmed that I no longer translate at all, but actually fully think in English. It used to be a bit of a struggle, as I would often forget half of my intended meaning during the time it took to translate parts of it. I now see my mind follow the same patterns in its English creative process as it does in French. While I first believed I had no particular rituals or mechanisms associated with my writing, I realize it is untrue if I think about it for a moment.
I need silence, which is why I mostly write late at night. I need to be comfortable, which is why I don't own a desk. My couch is my friend. I need to have a detailed outline with quotes before I attempt to write an essay. Which is why the writing part usually doesn't take too long. However I do need a bit of time to get into it. Which is why I never try to start off by writing about the topic at hand. It often begins with mindless typing, along the lines of "It's late and I am sitting here. I think I heard the neighbor's cat. Or maybe the skunk is back. I'm tired. I am supposed to write this paper to dissect a new article from a rhetorical point of view. I actually find that the author is quite cynical although it's not necessarily apparent on the first read...." And then the thoughts start flowing and following the structure of my detailed outline. My mind is usually a sentence ahead of my fingers, and I have to try and keep up, which leads to long-winded or run-on sentences and frequent wordiness, a recurring comment from classmates who workshopped my position paper--and which I agree with. Once I am done, I go back to the beginning and delete my "automatic typing", which I replace with an introduction. That is usually the only part of an essay which I don't compose while in a "creative trance". Truth be told, aside from the introduction I would have a very hard time quoting anything at all from an essay of mine even five minutes after completing my first draft.
Unless I am taking four online classes at the same time and am struggling to make the deadline on several papers at once, I usually like to let a paper "sit" for a day or two until it is completely out of my mind. When I finally read it over, it seems so completely foreign to me that I can see flaws much better. It's easier to be objective when you force your mind to take a step back.
Overall, once I do all the preparatory work--which to me is the most tedious part of a written assignment--the writing itself comes fairly naturally as long as I am in the right environment. In this particular course, having to juggle with 3 other classes, work, my children and a move all at once truly was a challenge, and I feel I didn't benefit from the sequence of assignments the way I was meant to. Had I been able to concentrate on the flow of the class and able to keep moving from one assignment to the next while the specific learning points were still fresh, I probably would have enjoyed the course more. I will still organize my essays according to the enthusiasm they elicited in me, from favorite to least favorite, because I am very grateful for the joy I experienced in writing some of them.
My favorite paper was by far the position paper, because I am both a fan of eloquence and an opinionated person, and nothing thrills me more than the opportunity to state in style my position on an issue I am passionate about. Dissecting someone else's rhetoric is also an activity I enjoy from a purely literary viewpoint due to my academic background. However, in this class I particularly enjoyed the rhetoric analysis because it was not based on literary texts, a first for me. I think it gave my relative pedantism a run for its money by showing me how intricate and fascinating the prose of the "common journalist" can be. I started on that project with great reluctance, only to find myself having quite a bit of fun by the end of it. The argument response would be my third favorite. I normally would have been delighted at the opportunity to tell someone else off, even if only in an essay they would never read, but I felt that the text choices were limiting. My essay felt contrived after I picked an article by default because all the others just seemed worse. And finally, the research paper would have to be the black sheep in this course for me. It has little to do with the assignment itself, which was definitely instrumental in improving my research skills. It was simply too much for me to handle as the term came to a conclusion with final papers and exams in all four of my classes. That last assignment was truly a chore. I will never take so many classes at once again.
I've always written a lot, for a number of reasons. I'm a visual person; I make lists, I take notes. I also grew up without the internet until I was twenty years old. So I wrote my fair share of postcards and letters to grandma and my friends when I was young (a long, long time ago). I'm also a musician and a shower singer, and as such I have the unevitable plethora of original compositions and lyrics hidden in a drawer somewhere. They were of course all meant to be number one hits had I only managed to write more than a few verses of each. In elementary and junior high school, one of my favorite activities in French class was creative writing. I've always loved words. I would keep my favorites listed in a little notebook: pleiad, farandole, tintinnabulation and other ukuleles. My mother still sends me the latest version of the French dictionary every few years.
Over the years though, with the advent of email and instant messaging, I have--like most--succombed to the temptation of simplified written exchanges, one-sentence updates and internet-specific acronyms. Getting back into composing proper essays and reclaiming what used to be my style has proven to be a bit of a challenge. But it feels great to spend time rediscovering the mental processes that transpose my thoughts into written words.
Going back to academic writing has confirmed that I no longer translate at all, but actually fully think in English. It used to be a bit of a struggle, as I would often forget half of my intended meaning during the time it took to translate parts of it. I now see my mind follow the same patterns in its English creative process as it does in French. While I first believed I had no particular rituals or mechanisms associated with my writing, I realize it is untrue if I think about it for a moment.
I need silence, which is why I mostly write late at night. I need to be comfortable, which is why I don't own a desk. My couch is my friend. I need to have a detailed outline with quotes before I attempt to write an essay. Which is why the writing part usually doesn't take too long. However I do need a bit of time to get into it. Which is why I never try to start off by writing about the topic at hand. It often begins with mindless typing, along the lines of "It's late and I am sitting here. I think I heard the neighbor's cat. Or maybe the skunk is back. I'm tired. I am supposed to write this paper to dissect a new article from a rhetorical point of view. I actually find that the author is quite cynical although it's not necessarily apparent on the first read...." And then the thoughts start flowing and following the structure of my detailed outline. My mind is usually a sentence ahead of my fingers, and I have to try and keep up, which leads to long-winded or run-on sentences and frequent wordiness, a recurring comment from classmates who workshopped my position paper--and which I agree with. Once I am done, I go back to the beginning and delete my "automatic typing", which I replace with an introduction. That is usually the only part of an essay which I don't compose while in a "creative trance". Truth be told, aside from the introduction I would have a very hard time quoting anything at all from an essay of mine even five minutes after completing my first draft.
Unless I am taking four online classes at the same time and am struggling to make the deadline on several papers at once, I usually like to let a paper "sit" for a day or two until it is completely out of my mind. When I finally read it over, it seems so completely foreign to me that I can see flaws much better. It's easier to be objective when you force your mind to take a step back.
Overall, once I do all the preparatory work--which to me is the most tedious part of a written assignment--the writing itself comes fairly naturally as long as I am in the right environment. In this particular course, having to juggle with 3 other classes, work, my children and a move all at once truly was a challenge, and I feel I didn't benefit from the sequence of assignments the way I was meant to. Had I been able to concentrate on the flow of the class and able to keep moving from one assignment to the next while the specific learning points were still fresh, I probably would have enjoyed the course more. I will still organize my essays according to the enthusiasm they elicited in me, from favorite to least favorite, because I am very grateful for the joy I experienced in writing some of them.
My favorite paper was by far the position paper, because I am both a fan of eloquence and an opinionated person, and nothing thrills me more than the opportunity to state in style my position on an issue I am passionate about. Dissecting someone else's rhetoric is also an activity I enjoy from a purely literary viewpoint due to my academic background. However, in this class I particularly enjoyed the rhetoric analysis because it was not based on literary texts, a first for me. I think it gave my relative pedantism a run for its money by showing me how intricate and fascinating the prose of the "common journalist" can be. I started on that project with great reluctance, only to find myself having quite a bit of fun by the end of it. The argument response would be my third favorite. I normally would have been delighted at the opportunity to tell someone else off, even if only in an essay they would never read, but I felt that the text choices were limiting. My essay felt contrived after I picked an article by default because all the others just seemed worse. And finally, the research paper would have to be the black sheep in this course for me. It has little to do with the assignment itself, which was definitely instrumental in improving my research skills. It was simply too much for me to handle as the term came to a conclusion with final papers and exams in all four of my classes. That last assignment was truly a chore. I will never take so many classes at once again.
Blog 10 - beginning or preface
Writing is one of the most difficult tasks for me, I always procrastinate, I never enjoy it, and I am glad when I finish. Through these four essays I struggled and pulled all nighters but in the end I am satisfied with my work. English is easily my weakest subject; I enjoy the math and sciences much more. This class taught me to look at writing more analytically and less creatively which I appreciated. Writing essays in a step-by-step process is much better than just sitting at a blank computer screen and hoping something comes to my brain. I am an extremely wordy writer because I have trouble articulating my thoughts on paper without using conversional English or having a completely robotic and monotone structure. Through theses four papers I was able to learn more about my own my style, actually enjoy writing a paper, and learn many different techniques for researching and analyzing.
To my own surprise and delight, the prompts allowed for essays on varying topics. My favorite paper was the position paper. I myself happen to be a very opinionated person and enjoy making an argument. The paper on the BCS system was easiest to write but the hardest to find sources for. I am constantly watching ESPN and keeping updated with the sporting world and writing a paper about a controversial topic became easy with the BCS. I already knew the argument I was going to make and the concessions against it, and my rebuttal for those concessions. The hardest part was finding actual written information for my argument. College football usually contested on different sports debate shows like Around the Horn, College Football Live, or Pardon the Interruption. I think my tutor at the writing center put it when he said, “you already know what you’re going to say, you just need to find some else who said too.” The ancillary set me up perfect for this paper and I was able to write in about six hours. In this paper and in all my papers I went for the thesis attack of listing out all the main points that I would make in my body. I then tried to relate each paragraph to the thesis. I can actually say that I enjoyed writing this paper.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Blog 10
This course has to be the most fast paced class I have ever taken and probably will take in the future! When I first signed up for this course I definitely thought that this class would be easy to pass and get a good grade in. Little did I know that I would be staying up late at night writing essays during the summer.
Although this course was fast paced and required a lot of individual, self paced work I am very happy with the result. I have never known myself to be a good writer and actually dreaded writing an essay of any sort. This class allowed me to break out of my "confined writing shell" and expand on a multitude of ideas and genres of essays, some of which I have never even heard of. I think that the first two essays were personally a little more difficult for me because the topics were limited. That forced me to think about the particular given topic choices. On the other hand the second two essays allowed me to come up with new ideas that I was passionate about and expand on those. I learned that it is much easier to write about a topic you are passionate about.
I am most definitely a procrastinator. I always wait until the night before the essay is due to edit and sometimes even start it (hopefully saying this will not effect my grade). It is a habit that I have always have and despite the stress it places upon me I will most likely always have. Procrastinating does do one thing for me, it forces me to actually sit down and concentrate on the task at hand, in this case the essays. I think that in some ways the stress that is inevitable in this short course made me scared about my procrastination habits. Although I did not always physically write something long before the assignment was due, I defiantly thought about it in advance. This small step to me is even a big breakthrough.
I arranged my papers in my portfolio chronologically, from the first essay written to the final essay written. I personally believe this is an efficient way to arrange them because it shows the personal growth I have gained as a writer from the assignments. The first paper was definitely the hardest to write for me even though it ironically was the shortest. I have always been a bit hesitant to get my ideas out in words for a unknown reason. But as the course went on I began to feel more and more confident about my writing ability. The two text references were a definite help to my writing ability.
Although this six week course was not my first choice for an English class I am very satisfied with its result. I feel I have grown not only as a writer but as a composer all together. My problem was never getting my words out on paper, but making sure the words flow together. This course taught me how to keep the paragraphs of my essay clear and to the point. All in all, this course has taught me more than I thought I could have ever extracted from a first year English class. With these new found tools I can continue using these skills in other classes.
Although this course was fast paced and required a lot of individual, self paced work I am very happy with the result. I have never known myself to be a good writer and actually dreaded writing an essay of any sort. This class allowed me to break out of my "confined writing shell" and expand on a multitude of ideas and genres of essays, some of which I have never even heard of. I think that the first two essays were personally a little more difficult for me because the topics were limited. That forced me to think about the particular given topic choices. On the other hand the second two essays allowed me to come up with new ideas that I was passionate about and expand on those. I learned that it is much easier to write about a topic you are passionate about.
I am most definitely a procrastinator. I always wait until the night before the essay is due to edit and sometimes even start it (hopefully saying this will not effect my grade). It is a habit that I have always have and despite the stress it places upon me I will most likely always have. Procrastinating does do one thing for me, it forces me to actually sit down and concentrate on the task at hand, in this case the essays. I think that in some ways the stress that is inevitable in this short course made me scared about my procrastination habits. Although I did not always physically write something long before the assignment was due, I defiantly thought about it in advance. This small step to me is even a big breakthrough.
I arranged my papers in my portfolio chronologically, from the first essay written to the final essay written. I personally believe this is an efficient way to arrange them because it shows the personal growth I have gained as a writer from the assignments. The first paper was definitely the hardest to write for me even though it ironically was the shortest. I have always been a bit hesitant to get my ideas out in words for a unknown reason. But as the course went on I began to feel more and more confident about my writing ability. The two text references were a definite help to my writing ability.
Although this six week course was not my first choice for an English class I am very satisfied with its result. I feel I have grown not only as a writer but as a composer all together. My problem was never getting my words out on paper, but making sure the words flow together. This course taught me how to keep the paragraphs of my essay clear and to the point. All in all, this course has taught me more than I thought I could have ever extracted from a first year English class. With these new found tools I can continue using these skills in other classes.
Blog 10 (Portfolio preface)
Writing has not exactly been my forte for the past 6 weeks. I enjoy the art of writing and thinking and being expressively creative, but not the whole rhetorical analysis and research kind of thing. I'm not a big fan of being told what to do, how many pages to write, MLA format, bibliographies, or any of those important details. As a hopeless romantic and fairytale follower, the only thing I like being told is to write with a heart on your sleeve. My process of writing doesn't consist of a cup of coffee or a 20 minute run, it is mainly made up of an unlimited imagination. During my junior year of high school, I was introduced to an inspirational movie called "Finding Forrester". The moral of the story was: "No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!" After watching the movie, I tried as hard as I could to write without thinking. As impossible and difficult as that may sound, it actually worked. Ever since then, everytime I picked up a piece of paper, I would write until my hand couldn't even pick up a Twix bar. That process taught me to be unstoppable, limitless, and free-spirited... BUT, when I entered this class, it became useless. The type of writing I did in English 100 didn't just slap my free-writing-process in the face, but it taught me that in order to write a college paper, it is crucial to research. It's crucial to be outspoken, but to also take other points of view into consideration. It's crucial to cite every piece of information you provide in order to avoid plagiarism. It's crucial to write with class.
The first paper was the rhetorical analysis. Not only was it complete proof of my inexperience to college writing, but it was proof that I had no idea about what I was analyzing. I did my paper on Lisa Selin Davis' “Does Facebook Replace Time or Enhance It?” mainly because the word Facebook caught my attention. I was new to the analyzing process but once I read about it in the Norton Field Guide, I realized that I had been rhetorically analyzing things my whole life. This paper is probably not the best out of all four, but I did enjoy rewriting it for the portfolio because I learned from all my mistakes. The problem I had with this paper was just the lack of confidence I had in writing. It was the first paper I had ever written based on rhetorical analysis so I was a little concerned it wouldn't be as good as others. Once I received my grade, I eased up a little and came to the conclusion that I can write; I just need to boosten up my self-esteem.
The argument response paper was definitely my favorite. It wasn't the easiest, but it wasn't the most difficult. I enjoyed writing this paper because it gave me a chance to research. On a regular basis, I would never research on presidential eras and their associations with abortion-related terrorism, but researching isn't exactly new to me. I'm a day-to-day googler and if anyone were to look in my history page on my laptop, it would consist of Google. I love researching, but not on things I have to write about. However, this paper really caught my attention because I've always been a little on the fence about abortion. I wanted to write about this certain topic mainly because I agreed with the author's stance. I think it was a little difficult for me to be in agreement with the author because the whole point of an argument response is to disagree. Well not exactly, but in my opinion, it would have been much easier to write this paper if I had disagreed. The feedback I got from Ms. Bolaski really enlightened me on the whole process of writing. After I wrote the argument response paper, I felt as if I could write anything. Little did I know that next, we had to write a position paper.
The position paper was somewhat enjoyable but it was a little more on the challenging side. I didn't really like being obligated to have a certain amount of scholarly sources, or a number of sources in general, but it did help me with my research paper. I wrote about standardized testing and the new No Child Left Behind Act and how completely unnecessary they both are. I didn't really understand the whole idea of rebuttals or concessions, but once I read sample papers, it was much easier to comprehend. I wasn't as passionate about my paper as I should have been and I considered changing my topic but I had already done enough research to begin my paper. If I could change something about the paper, it probably would have to be the topic. After workshopping other position papers and reading every other interesting topic, I felt as if I could have written more creatively about something more appealing than standardized testing.
Last, but not least, the research paper... this paper was undoubtedly my least favorite. I did not enjoy one bit of it other than learning about drunk driving. This past year, I knew someone who had been killed, not by a drunk driver, but by driving drunk. It was probably the most life-changing event that could have happened. From that experience, I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of how excruciatingly devastating a drunk driving accident is. Thankfully, the number of drunk driving accidents has declined. I did my research paper on the topic of drunk driving and how the number of accidents has decreased. I didn't exactly like writing it mainly because there were an infinite amount of statistics and reading so many numbers only led to a fat headache. I learned a lot from this research paper, and I'm pretty sure it provides proof of everything I've learned throughout the course.
Overall, every paper I have written has taught me that writing freely shouldn't be the only way to write. I came into the class thinking that my process would help me... but in reality, it didn't. College writing, as I said before, needs to be full of facts and statistics and citing and supportive details. What I write shouldn't come off the top of my head. I enjoyed the class and how open it was to different topics and I definitely enjoyed the amount of time we had to write each paper. It wasn't as fast paced as I had expected and altogether, it was definitely a big help to my writing career.
The first paper was the rhetorical analysis. Not only was it complete proof of my inexperience to college writing, but it was proof that I had no idea about what I was analyzing. I did my paper on Lisa Selin Davis' “Does Facebook Replace Time or Enhance It?” mainly because the word Facebook caught my attention. I was new to the analyzing process but once I read about it in the Norton Field Guide, I realized that I had been rhetorically analyzing things my whole life. This paper is probably not the best out of all four, but I did enjoy rewriting it for the portfolio because I learned from all my mistakes. The problem I had with this paper was just the lack of confidence I had in writing. It was the first paper I had ever written based on rhetorical analysis so I was a little concerned it wouldn't be as good as others. Once I received my grade, I eased up a little and came to the conclusion that I can write; I just need to boosten up my self-esteem.
The argument response paper was definitely my favorite. It wasn't the easiest, but it wasn't the most difficult. I enjoyed writing this paper because it gave me a chance to research. On a regular basis, I would never research on presidential eras and their associations with abortion-related terrorism, but researching isn't exactly new to me. I'm a day-to-day googler and if anyone were to look in my history page on my laptop, it would consist of Google. I love researching, but not on things I have to write about. However, this paper really caught my attention because I've always been a little on the fence about abortion. I wanted to write about this certain topic mainly because I agreed with the author's stance. I think it was a little difficult for me to be in agreement with the author because the whole point of an argument response is to disagree. Well not exactly, but in my opinion, it would have been much easier to write this paper if I had disagreed. The feedback I got from Ms. Bolaski really enlightened me on the whole process of writing. After I wrote the argument response paper, I felt as if I could write anything. Little did I know that next, we had to write a position paper.
The position paper was somewhat enjoyable but it was a little more on the challenging side. I didn't really like being obligated to have a certain amount of scholarly sources, or a number of sources in general, but it did help me with my research paper. I wrote about standardized testing and the new No Child Left Behind Act and how completely unnecessary they both are. I didn't really understand the whole idea of rebuttals or concessions, but once I read sample papers, it was much easier to comprehend. I wasn't as passionate about my paper as I should have been and I considered changing my topic but I had already done enough research to begin my paper. If I could change something about the paper, it probably would have to be the topic. After workshopping other position papers and reading every other interesting topic, I felt as if I could have written more creatively about something more appealing than standardized testing.
Last, but not least, the research paper... this paper was undoubtedly my least favorite. I did not enjoy one bit of it other than learning about drunk driving. This past year, I knew someone who had been killed, not by a drunk driver, but by driving drunk. It was probably the most life-changing event that could have happened. From that experience, I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of how excruciatingly devastating a drunk driving accident is. Thankfully, the number of drunk driving accidents has declined. I did my research paper on the topic of drunk driving and how the number of accidents has decreased. I didn't exactly like writing it mainly because there were an infinite amount of statistics and reading so many numbers only led to a fat headache. I learned a lot from this research paper, and I'm pretty sure it provides proof of everything I've learned throughout the course.
Overall, every paper I have written has taught me that writing freely shouldn't be the only way to write. I came into the class thinking that my process would help me... but in reality, it didn't. College writing, as I said before, needs to be full of facts and statistics and citing and supportive details. What I write shouldn't come off the top of my head. I enjoyed the class and how open it was to different topics and I definitely enjoyed the amount of time we had to write each paper. It wasn't as fast paced as I had expected and altogether, it was definitely a big help to my writing career.
writing preface
I've never wrote so many essay's in so little time before this class. Usually, I am a pretty good writer, but it's always hard for me to get started or pick a topic. I am much better at writing things from my mind or from emotion, than from any research or information. Research and information are hard to find for me, and they are hard to make into your own words, with only facts. This class has opened me up to all different kinds of essay's I hadn't done before, and to get started on those, I had to sit down and not get up till it was done. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to finish them because I get very distracted.
When I think about what I'm going to write, I usually just sit in front of the computer until i think of something good. I also procrastinate a lot, although I did that more in high school. I think I do this because I really don't like writing or just doing any work for school. I try to find a main idea before I start writing so I can try to base the whole essay on this point, but sometimes the main idea isn't good enough and the essay broadens out as it goes along. In this case, I have to adjust my thesis a bit. I think it's beneficial for an instructor to read and comment on my writing, but other students can just make the same mistakes I do. Or, something they comment could be wrong and unhelpful and if I didn't know that I could change my essay for the worse.
My papers were good for me because I never write essay's, not even before in school, and I did all 4 essay's with confidence. I arranged my paper's 1-4 chronologically. I think they show my growth as a writer and how I improved my structure skills. The teacher made a comment on my second paper telling me about how I needed a stronger argument because I needed to base everything on that argument and the thesis. This helped me because then I took the time to find a much stronger argument and the rest of the paper came much easier and stronger. Then when I went to the writing center, the helper told me that each topic sentence should reflect the thesis, and the rest of the paragraph. This let me know what each topic sentence was supposed to be like and that helped me find arguments for each of my paragraphs that actually related to my topic.
My writing has been thoroughly improved after all these essay's I wrote in this class. After all the critics of my papers form students, teachers, and writing center helpers, I feel like I know how to break down an essay now. From basing the essay and the topic sentences on the main idea and thesis, to finding a good enough argument to actually keep through out the essay, this class has taught me a lot. I know that this semester will really help me excel next semester and finish up english.
Portfolio Preface
I am a procrastinator to the core. This is a habit that I just can’t seem to break. Because of this I often find myself sitting down at the very last minute to write a paper or work on assignment. I have gotten pretty good at this since high school, but I won’t argue that my work could be better if it wasn’t rushed through at the last minute. I’m sure I’d need multiple therapy sessions to get to the root cause of this habit, but in a nutshell I think it’s because I thrive off stress (the good kind) and a little bit of chaos. If my life, work, career was boring I don’t think I could handle it. So I’m overly busy, involved in too many activities and only happy when all this is going on. Waiting until the last minute to write a paper, provides a little bit of motivating stress and a rush to the deadline because of this I continue to procrastinate. One would think that it would be very difficult to continue this pattern in a six week summer session for any subject, let alone an English course with a considerable amount of writing. Unfortunately, I still found myself procrastinating down to the day papers were due. I would get off work at five o’clock and rush home to power through the paper that would be due before midnight that night. Of course this caused a lot of unnecessary stress and worry but in the end the assignments were always completed and received decent scores. Not only did my writing evolve throughout the last six weeks, I tried to evolve in the process in which I completed my assignments as well. By the last two papers, Position and Research, I was at least completing all my research early in the week and drafting a detailed outline by mid-week. I didn’t completely rid myself of the procrastination habit, but I am proud of the change I made and believe it helped me in the writing of our last two assignments.
I hadn’t written anything but research papers, emails, and procedures in the last ten years prior to this course so the thought of analyzing an article or arguing with or against another authors point scared me. MLA format, what was that? I was so used to APA format this scared me even more. As the summer session went on, the assignment requirements called for lengthier papers yet somehow they became easier for me to write. The first paper, the rhetorical analysis, while only 3 pages, took me the longest to write. I was too scared to type anything. I would type a line, reread it, and then, certain it didn’t make sense or wasn’t what Professor Bolaski was looking for, I’d hit delete. My confidence in my writing ability was slightly boosted when the first paper was returned with a decent score. By the last two papers my writing came much easier to me, no longer was I afraid of the writing process or MLA.
For this, my final assignment and portfolio I thought long and hard about what order to arrange my work in. The easiest of course would be chronologically or from favorite to least favorite, but I wanted to arrange it in a way that reflected more about what I learned from this summer session. The arrangement of my writing portfolio reflects the challenges I had during this course. The hardest assignment for me to write is displayed first, and so on. Arranging the assignments this way illustrates my evolution as a student and a writer during this course.
I’m surprised at how much I learned in a six week online course, not just about MLA formatting but about the different types of writing and the purposes behind each. I hope to take the principles learned in this course through assignments, readings, and the much appreciated feedback from Pofessor Bolaski onto my critical thinking course and writing endeavors. I’m still a procrastinator but no longer scared of writing.
I hadn’t written anything but research papers, emails, and procedures in the last ten years prior to this course so the thought of analyzing an article or arguing with or against another authors point scared me. MLA format, what was that? I was so used to APA format this scared me even more. As the summer session went on, the assignment requirements called for lengthier papers yet somehow they became easier for me to write. The first paper, the rhetorical analysis, while only 3 pages, took me the longest to write. I was too scared to type anything. I would type a line, reread it, and then, certain it didn’t make sense or wasn’t what Professor Bolaski was looking for, I’d hit delete. My confidence in my writing ability was slightly boosted when the first paper was returned with a decent score. By the last two papers my writing came much easier to me, no longer was I afraid of the writing process or MLA.
For this, my final assignment and portfolio I thought long and hard about what order to arrange my work in. The easiest of course would be chronologically or from favorite to least favorite, but I wanted to arrange it in a way that reflected more about what I learned from this summer session. The arrangement of my writing portfolio reflects the challenges I had during this course. The hardest assignment for me to write is displayed first, and so on. Arranging the assignments this way illustrates my evolution as a student and a writer during this course.
I’m surprised at how much I learned in a six week online course, not just about MLA formatting but about the different types of writing and the purposes behind each. I hope to take the principles learned in this course through assignments, readings, and the much appreciated feedback from Pofessor Bolaski onto my critical thinking course and writing endeavors. I’m still a procrastinator but no longer scared of writing.
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