Final Reflection

At the beginning of the quarter, I really did not know what to expect from this class. When I thought about improving my writing, I thought of somewhat minor aspects, such as grammar. I did not think the very foundation of my expression of ideas would change. I did not realize the overhaul that my writing would need in order to succeed at the college level. I had never heard of “academic writing” before. Like I wrote in my first blog entry, I still think I am a work in progress. Although now the way I am trying to improve myself is completely different from the past. Going forward, one of them main aspects of my writing I still think I need to improve is my academic tone. This includes refraining from using empty adjectives. I need to come off as more professional and less sensationalistic. If nothing else, this course has pointed me in the right direction towards whom I wish to become as a writer.

SLO Reflection Part 2

This quarter, much has changed about my writing. I’m not just talking about grammar and superficial sentence structure. The very foundation of my expression of ideas has shifted significantly. I’ve changed my writing into a more academic style. A major part of this is critical thinking. I am much more proficient analyzing a source, recognizing significant points, and being able to integrate it into an overall argument. This course has taught me how to better apply knowledge into broader ideas. My ability to apply knowledge has also led to better reasoned paper. It has allowed me to better apply evidence in papers. Overall, I would say my writing has come a long way during the quarter.

SLO Reflection Part 1

In a mere quarter, I have vastly improved myself as not only a writer, but also as a researcher, and a reader of academic text. In my first quarter of college, I have learned to read in a way that benefits me as a scholar. I have obtained the ability to establish relevancy of a text to my topic of research without reading every single word. I can use a scholarly source without being caught in the black hole of dense academic text. However, if I did not know how to find these sources, being able to use them would be useless. This class has also presented me with essential research skills for college life. Not only do I now know what scholarly sources are, I have the ability to find them. I now know how to sift through the proper databases to find the most reliable sources for my research. I am not saying that I am the perfect reader and researcher, but now I at least have my foot in the door.

What Revision Means to Me

To me, revision simply means changing a work, hopefully for the better. The idea behind revision is the more one does it the better one’s work should be. No matter how strong one’s paper is, it can always use more revision, especially as time goes on and different ideas emerge. The man from the video didn’t really define revision, he just described a general writing process and compared it to evolution.

Feedback on my second essay

Essay 2 has definitely been an adventure. It has been a learning experience but I feel I may have fallen into many of the pitfalls that plagued me in essay 1. Obviously this time I play to change these shortcomings later, it is only my first draft. That being said, I need my readers to focus in on a couple aspects of my paper. The first area is conciseness. Is what I am saying really relevant to my overall work? The second aspect I need my readers to watch are empty adjectives. Am I using useless superlatives like: “astronomically” or “amazingly”. Definitely feel free to write about whatever area you wish to in my paper. Just make sure you put some focus on those two areas. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Essay 2 Plan

I feel like choosing the third option for my second essay really created a lot of freedom in my writing. I’m much more able to discuss other significant aspects of blogging, besides strictly expression of identity. I’m going to argue that blogging can significantly enhance learning in academic environment. I think it’s a nice argument to shoehorn my way into the “conversation”. I still haven’t found my other sources but I haven’t spent much time seeking them out so I don’t anticipate any major problems with that. I feel like I have a strong sense of direction for my paper. All I have to do now is finalize my sources and start writing my essay.

Source for essay 2

I have decided to use the article “E-Learning” 2.0 by Stephen Downes as a source to support my paper. Throughout the article Downes discusses how online tools such as blogging are evolving into powerful learning tools as the world wide web expands. He argues that online learning tools are evolving as rapidly as the internet itself. In order to support his argument, Downes begins his article by giving a brief history of the evolution of various learning tools that utilize the world wide web such as blogs, blackboard, and a tool called McMaster. Downes then goes on to present an argument for the future of online learning. His article seems like a great tool for the angle I’m taking with my paper.

Thoughts on essay 2

I am the most interested in the third option for my second essay. It seems like the best option for me to be able to break into the discussion. It seems like the most freeing option and therefore probably something that will produce my best work. I didn’t really like option one because I really don’t think my blog is interesting enough to write four pages about, nor did I like option two because it seems like almost a repeat of the essay I just did. The third option seems like it’s the best because I feel like there’s a lot to discuss about the overall significance of blogging in society; it’s even something I think I can build on from my last essay. I actually wanted to write more about the overall significance of blogging; however, I was restricted by the prompt. The second essay will really give me an opportunity to elaborate further on my ideas.

Thoughts on West's article

Reading West's article is enlightening for a number of reasons. She really found a way to appeal to her students interests as opposed to a rigid form of learning that public education often stoops to. She make a strong argument for educational environments around the world to follow her suit. She demonstrates that using digital tools can be a great medium for today's youth to learn and shows some of the true potential of blogging. Through reading her table of student blogs, it seems like the internet has allowed for a whole new level of interaction and learning between her students. I found West's article is quite thought-provoking overall.

Reflecting on essay 1

Writing essay 1 taught me a few important things going forward to essay 2 and future college essays. First and foremost, I learned that I need to spread the writing process out better. 95% of the time was spent slowly researching and revising my essay; the other 5% was on me semi-frantically writing up my rough draft. I need to bring those percentages closer for sure. Working on essay 1 also taught me that if I revise my essay through various resources, I can vastly improve my paper. I’ve also learned that my writings are part of a grand conversation. Everything I do is a work in progress. I know the things I’ve learned from writing essay 1 will be invaluable going forward.

They Say, I Say

They Say, I Say brought many important points about writing; however, one in particular really struck me as something I need to implement into my writing. I need to make a point to organize my paper in a way that doesn’t confuse the reader. I need to make sure I balance my voice with an academic style that is relatively easy to understand. I need to be able to get my message across without it becoming cluttered. On other side, I need to make sure my writing doesn’t come off as extremely dry. They Say, I Say has made me realize that I need to be able to balance my voice with an academic approach in my writing

Presentation Reflection

My presentation on my essay definitely had its pros and cons. On the positive side it felt good to talk about my essay and be able to think through it. Dr. Thompson also brought up an interesting point about the symbiosis element of my essay. She thought it might be good to emphasize it more in my essay but I’m kind of struggling with that. If I emphasize it too much more it’s going to become the main idea of my paper and that’s a problem because that element kind of strays away from the research question. I want to discuss it but I need to make sure my paper is mainly about identity. On the negative side I had a few hiccups with my powerpoint and I think might have been standing in a way that was isolating one side of the room.

Blogging passage

I already integrated a section from Blogging into my essay so I’ll just discuss that. I chose to use: “Blogs are a social genre. Bloggers don’t simply write to their ‘Dear Diary’, they write into the world with a clear expectation of having readers. That Readership does not necessarily need to be very large. On the internet, everyone is famous to fifteen people” (Rettberg 57). The quote struck me as something that would integrate perfectly into my paper. I used the passage as a springboard to argue that blogging can work just as well with a large following as it can with a small one. The quote is something I agree with but I believe it can be expanded as well.

Writing Conference

After the writing conference, I’ve decided to make a few changes to my paper; but overall, I’m feeling pretty confident with it for the time being. I’m going to tweak my thesis to encompass my paper better and I already basically know what it will look like. Beyond that, however, I think I’m going to wait for more feedback before I make any other major changes to it. Dr. Thompson seemed pretty happy with my new thesis and overall direction with my paper. The next step is to email my paper to my peers after I write in my new thesis and then start to prepare for my presentation.

Research update #1

Trying to analyze my research blog, “Brian’s Soapbox”, has been somewhat challenging but my work is already yielding results. I’ve found that it’s easy to get dragged down in the details in the blog due to the vastness of it. However, his biography page gives me some background information on his interests and helps give a sort of foundation to his blog. It doesn’t take a lot of analyzing to figure out that he uses his blog as a “soapbox” to interact with and express himself to his many fans. He makes his passions such as his love for animals and astronomy abundantly clear. I’m already finding strong evidence to support a paper and I know that more will present itself in the coming days.

Reading

"At some level, it doesn't matter whether the blog is 'real' or 'true' or 'authentic'. It doesn't matter whether the videos of crying children and anxious mothers were  really posted to YouTube by teenagers in Beirut as Israel dropped bombs on their city. We have already heard the news of the bombings of Beirut and the attacks on Baghdad from mainstream media outlets. The primary function of these blogs and videos is not to be a factual report or confirmation of what is happening. They are highly subjective, emotional reports on events that we already know are happening. Baghdad was being invaded as Salam Pax blogged. And really, all the Lebanese teenagers or Salam Pax were telling us were things we could have imagined for ourselves - but we still wanted to read or see them from people actually experiencing the events. In this sense, the truth of blogs may have more in common with truth of novels, art and poetry than with the facts presented by journalism" (Rettberg 93-94).


Paraphrase: It often doesn't matter if a blog is completely factual because people simply want to relate to people experiencing current events.


This passage is particularly interesting because it separates a certain style of blogging from mainstream journalism. It explains how blogging can fulfill a natural human need to relate. It is a need to connect with others that is embedded deep within the human genome. This necessity to relate is something that mainstream journalism is often unable to fulfill. Due to the need for humans to connect, blogs like that of Salam Pax can become incredibly popular. It’s as if you know the blogger personally even if he doesn’t exist in reality. The reader is able establish a deep emotional connection with a current event. The factual nature of mainstream journalism is a polar opposite to emotionally driven journalism. Blogging allows for an entirely understanding of an event that mainstream journalism simply cannot provide. The passage compares the cold hard facts of mainstream journalism to the deep emotional connections that blogging is capable of providing.

Interests for research

It would be interesting to follow a blog containing sports or entertainment. Both of the genres are major interests for me and to be able to follow blogs under these topics would be exciting. Because I track these things on a daily basis, following a blog would only be natural. From my research, I hope to gain further insight into topics I'm already well-versed in.

Who am as a writer?

As a writer, I'm someone who always strives to improve. I'm always trying to learn more. I undestand that perfection is impossible; however, I wish to come as close as possible.