Almost There...

It’s almost over; it is just getting closer and closer, the end of my and many people in this class’ first quarter. It went by at weird pace, because the days go by fast but the weeks go by slow. We just finished our last Writing Project… how insane is that! It is a bit surreal and fast, but I guess that is the way life is, it just keeps moving no matter what’s going on, no matter if you’re ready for it or not. I feel like I keep relearning this lesson time and time again, it’s like I know it, but I forget about it much too often. Nevertheless, it has been a quarter full of emotion and growth. It’s weird how everything both academic and non-academic goes by so fast here, it is definitely taking me longer to get used to that.

This class is definitely a great example of everything moving fast, and that is probably for the best, but man would be crazy sometimes. Before we could even get some rest from WP#3 we were already suppose to be working on our group projects that were due in less than a week. This stressed me out to an amount I am not exactly very proud of, because I wanted to pull my hair out. I had already done so much that week and had an essay due the after presentations. I felt overwhelmed hearing about the fast-coming due date. Luckily, it worked out very well. Our group worked quite well together and even we learned from our topic.

I appreciated the presentations because I feel like they were concepts that we may have all known, but because of the presentations we got a better grasp on it or learned it more in depth. It is, for example, important to know when it is appropriate to use hedged language whether you are writing for hard sciences, soft sciences, or humanities, or what transitions work best for which writing situation. No matter what the topic was after last Monday I felt much more comfortable with the topic because I had learned more in depth. So yay for group presentations!

Reflection Thlog!

Hey Everyone… The quarter is almost over and this just barely occurred to me, the quarter system has me quite puzzled. Nevertheless, thinking about how the end of this class is near it has made me reflect on it and everything I have learned this quarter about writing and about myself. Well that and also the fact that I have to work on my portfolio pretty soon.

Still, I reflect, and thought about everything we have done this quarter from the course readings to the PBs and WPs to the genres we have pulled apart. See, and the thing about reflection is once you start thinking about what you learned about you start making connections about your writing and yourself and how you overcame those challenges and it is crazy how many thoughts come into your head and how if you let them flow out it’s like you begin to learn that you have learned much more than you initially thought, and that’s pretty cool.

See like, okay, I feel like one of the more prominent concepts of this class is to look at everything with a little more depth, so if you notice a writer makes a “move” you should find out why he made it and how it’s effective and if it’s even effective in the first place. I feel like the fact that I really enjoy literature is one of the reasons I like to look deeper at why a writer does something, but this class has showed me how to do it effectively, and I find myself doing this for a lo of different subjects. Before I would just look for intentions behind those actions and now I think why did they have intentions? What will these intentions cause to happen next?

There is so many more examples, this week and finishing up my WP#3 really prompted me to think about this, and I’m glad I have already seen how this class has helped me so much not just in my academic writing but my own personal writing and the way I look at the world around me.

Write like a Reader

A lot went on this week for this class. I did my PBs, started my WP#3, and got my WP#2 back, and I know that doesn’t seem like too much when I say it just like that, but you all know how much it is. It’s good to be busy and I like this writing project, I feel like it requires a lot more thoughtfulness than the other WP’s but that’s good thing. It is always good to use the creative part of your mind, I think.

So I didn’t exactly like my score for the WP#2, and I have to admit I was a little down about it, especially after reading the comments, because these are all things I know I should be doing and then just missed the mark because I was more focused on sharing all the information I found.

Even though it always hurts to not get the score you wanted I feel like it is one of the best learning experiences. Next time, I know what I have to do to make my essay more effective. I feel like I really need to read my writing as if it were not my writing that way I can well read like a writer and take note of what be most effective. So I’m working on it…

I’m still happy about WP#3, but a little stuck, it’s hard to mimic the great Shel Silverstein, so it’s good thing I brought my Shel Silverstein book with me, it definetly helps me get inspired, but it’s still tough. I do love how much creativity is involved in this project, but it is very important that you have a good grasp on the genres to do both well and make it believable. I also feel like this is a very strong way to test our reading like writer skills. I think the big lesson for me this week is to write like a reader.

To elaborate on that thought, I believe that as a writer it is important to look at your work from a totally outside perspective, it helps be more clear and see what you really need to include in your writing to make it more effective and I am really hoping I can do this for this writing project. Fingers crossed!

PB3A- My WP#3 Pitch

I found a very interesting academic piece that I believe works very well with what I want to do for my younger audience idea. What also worked rather well was what I hoped to happen when I read my academic piece and that is having a more educated if you will brainstorm of what I can do for the older audience, and it worked out pretty smoothly, for now at least. The academic is an insightful piece discussing the correlation between personality types and the impact it has on the relationships, the study was done on young adults. It is creatively called, “Personality Effects on Romantic Relationship Quality through Friendship Quality: A Ten-Year Longitudinal Study in Youths.”

I had the younger audience idea since the first time we discussed WP#3 in class, and that is to make something similar to a Shel Silverstein poetry book. In my head, it can be like each poem can discuss a different piece of the academic article. For example one poem can be about the three categories of personalities discussed: overcontrollers, under-controllers, and resilients. The next can be the pros of relationships such as companionship another about the cons like conflict, maybe one can be about both. I feel like the possibilities here are endless, which is exciting. Maybe there is a poem that discussed the conclusion and can be the title of the book. Afterall, that is a convention of Shel Silverstein books to have the title of the book to be the title of a prominent poem within the book.

What I am worried about here is the drawings, I was not blessed with the ability to be artistic at all which is quite disappointing. I doodle a lot so let’s hope the helps, also although I respect Silverstein’s artistic abilities very highly, they are simple enough to mimic. I will get as similar as I can get.

As for the older audience, I was thinking to make an advice column. I’m still deciding on what the advice column should be on, because I know there is a lot of routes I can take. It could be giving advice to parents who have their adolescent children and are dealing with their friendship/relationship conflicts. I can also take the route in which it is an advice column of how to properly communicate with your partner or friend because the article does discuss how there are different personality types in relationships: overcontrollers, under-controllers, and resilients. There is a part that discusses how they tend to be in relationships so that is also a route to take.

I have a lot of room in both genres to take a lot of routes, but I think that is a good thing because it will be fairly difficult to be completely stumped, because I can be so creative. I am very excited to get started, having so much room for creativity for a school project is refreshing, so I am crazy excited for all of this. I want to have stories behind each to like maybe the advice column will be longer because the magazine is doing a special edition of this relationship advice column because it’s close to Valentine’s Day or something. The Shel Silverstein book could be inspired by the increase in bullying and abusive relationships in the youth. I am really going to allow myself to get creative but stay on topic, so I’m excited. We’ll see how it goes.

Make it Come to Life -Thlog #6

How did I feel after WP#2…. Honestly, pretty tired and relieved. Mostly because I accidently made my essay half a page too long 45 minutes before the deadline… It was a tough morning to say the least.

I’m writing this thlog after my 4:00 am shift at work, so excuse me if I get too sassy during this one. I would be sleeping, but my roommate convinced me that homework was a better idea seeing that brunch is soon and I’m already up, some of you may say she’s a good roommate others may not. Nevertheless, at least I am getting homework done early.

Getting back to the essay, I was very stressed out about my essay being too long, but I feel like it really did allow me to look over my essay and see how unnecessary some of the details were. I feel like it is important to know how to condense ideas and have more evidence instead of fluff, so I’m happy I learned how to do that.

So WP#3 is really exciting it is making me very anxious because there is so many routes to take and so much room for creativity, but that is also scary, but mostly exciting. The Bob Ross videos were very helpful to watch, I got a lot out them, like the way I was able to see how important details are especially when your audience needs to be walked through the process. Also, I feel like listening to the way he gets inspired is the kind of mentality we need to be shown for WP#3, you know, making those “happy trees” “come to life.” Art should come to life. I loved how the Disney artists said that to about making it come to life.

 

Let that be the motto for WP#3: Make it come to Life.

Video Response

Bob Ross:

Bob Ross first of all reassures a peaceful and understanding tone, he doesn’t want the learner to feel intimidated by the task. Another way he tries to bring this peace of mind is by taking the person step by step, to every last detail. He explains which colors he is using how and when he mixes them how to hold a brush and how to stroke it to make the painting effect that he is doing. In the end, he wants to make the painting look like a picture, he wants it to look real and for them to come to life, which is why he uses personification so much about the items in the paintings. However, he does not want intimidate the audience that is why he speaks the way he does and goes through every last detail. It can be assumed that his audience are possibly beginners/intermediate because he would not have to go so in detail if they were professionals.

Disney Artists:

They too go through every step, they go into specifics about what inspires them to allow the piece to come to life. This is very helpful because part of being artist is finding your inspiration and muse, they believe that if they explain theirs that it will allow people to see the importance and in hopes find theirs. They also use the bring to life concept, because art is suppose to speak to an audience it is suppose to feel real therefore, it must look real, and give vibes to the view that it is helpful to have an image in your head and what it is suppose to look like.

Family Guy:

This is a satirical piece of the way Bob Ross can be so friendly and personal with his audience. It’s humor comes from imitation and hyperbole of how personal Bob Ross can be when he is doing his show. This can be an example for WP#3 as it does appeal to an older audience who would know who Bob Ross is and how he acts and due to the crude and vulgar humor. It was made with intention to poke fun at someone and make people laugh.

Journal Responses

1. Well for my WP#2 I answered pretty well. The first draft was very plain so I began to add, change, and edit everything to make it stronger at about 11:15 I came to the realization that my paper was six and half pages long. I actually wanted to cry, but I just went back and condensed and cut some stuff out which I think at the end worked out okay, because I was able to take out some things that were unecesary or redundant, so it worked out okay. Shaken up, but I’m glad it all worked out okay.

2. I was told that in some places I was unclear which helped me understand that sometimes just because I as the writer knows what’s going on doesn’t mean that the reader will, so it helped me be more clear in my essay. I was very unsure of my structure and was apparently giving it way too much stress because I was told that it made sense and helped the flow of the paper so yay!