Hello! For this blog assignment we had to read works by Mary Karr, Anne Lamott, and Don Murray. This was an interesting assignment, and took longer than I realized. But overall, it was fun trying to write a scene and dialogue. They each made valid points that gave me a better insight into writing and reading, and hopefully I’ll remember the tips they gave.
It was a cold Sunday afternoon, and I had suddenly remembered that I had an assignment due tonight for my English Class. Panicked, I looked over at the clock and let out a sigh of relief as I realised I still had time to make it to the library. I quickly grabbed a jacket and headed out the door, rushing to catch the next bus. As soon as I arrived at the library I reserved a computer, and began looking over my assignment. “I probably should have started this assignment days earlier,” I thought out loud. “There’s no way I’m going to get this assignment done before the library closes for the night.” “Excuse me,” an older woman called out to me. She’s sitting at a nearby table with a lady and man. “Yes?” I politely said. Not in the mood to talk to anyone right now, but still wanting to be nice. “We couldn’t help but overhear you. I’m Mary Karr. This is Anne Lamott, and Don Murray. We are writers who teach a writing class here every Monday, and we are happy to help with any questions you may have.” “Oh, It’s nothing,” I responded. “I just need to get this English assignment done before the library closes. It’s always a pain having to come up with a writing idea.” “Writing is painful—it’s “fun” only for novices, the very young, and hacks; other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision,” Karr explained. “Yeah, but I don’t even know how to revise. What even makes a good revisier?” I asked. “The best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age, which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.” Karr answered. “Revision is the secret to their troubles—and yours. That, and a sense of quality that exceeds what you can do—that gives you something to strive for. Actually, every writer needs two selves—the generative self and the editor self.” “Yeah, but what is the process?” I asked. “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting.” Murray finally spoke. “The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say. It is not a rigid lock-step process, but most writers most of the time pass through these three stages. “ “Could you explain these stages?” I asked. “Prewriting is everything that takes place before the first draft. Prewriting usually takes about 85 percent of the writer’s time,” Murray began. “Writing is the act of producing a first draft. It is the fastest part of the process, and the most frightening, for it is a commitment,” Murray continued. “Rewriting is reconsideration of subject, form, and audience. It is researching, rethinking, redesigning, rewriting—and finally, line by-line editing, the demanding, satisfying process of making each word right.” “Yeah but that still does not mean I’m good at writing. No matter how hard I may try,” I said. “My students at the writing workshops have this gift of loving to read, and some of them are really fast, really good with words, and some of them aren’t really fast and don’t write all that well, but they still love good writing, and they just want to write. And I say, ‘Hey! That is good enough for me. Come on down.’" Lammot spoke up. I had almost forgotten she was there, she had been so quiet. “I tell my students they’ll want to be really good right off, and they may not be, but they might be good someday if they just keep the faith and keep practicing.” Lammot continued. “I try to make sure they understand that writing, and even getting good at it, and having books and stories and articles published, will not open the doors that most of them hope for.” “Okay.” I nodded my head. I looked over my assignment once again and suddenly had a clearer understanding. I turned back over to thank them, and realized that they were no longer there.
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Hello! For this week's blog assignment, we had to read A Fable for Living by Kevin Brockmeier. The short story was about a woman who lost her fiance too soon. She would write him letters reminiscing about past memories, or what has been going on in her life currently. In the end, she realised the pain was too much, and she decided that she was going to join him in the after life.
We also had to write a letter to our author self, and I like the idea of being able to look back at the letter years from now, and seeing if you completed the goal you set for yourself. Dear Joceline, I was not sure how to start this letter off, but I think I will cut straight to the chase. Your biggest issue was never grammar or spelling, but rather how to express the way you are feeling and how to get your message across. You do have your strengths, but you also have your weaknesses and right now it’s important to focus on what you can approve. I believe your top priority right now should be to improve your vocabulary so that you can get your thoughts across more clearly, and not get stuck on how to write something. I understand how frustrating it is to not have the words to express yourself. You always did have a love for books and poems, and I think it’s important to pick up the habit of reading again, and understand the reasoning behind why authors write the way they do. This semester, with the help of your teachers and classmates you may be able to understand your mistakes a bit more clearly, and even pick up a few tips. Sincerely, Joceline Hello! My second blog post will answer eight different questions that come from various articles. The first question will answer the reason why I choose to create a blog, and this link will help you create a blog as well. The following three questions give explanations that will help you get a good idea on how to create better blog posts. The two questions after that have a similar theme, but instead it deals with an acronym that will help your blog become more appealing to your audience. Finally, the last two questions explain how to write a better essay.
1. Why are we creating a website for our English Composition I course? We are creating a website for our English Composition I course to showcase our work to our other classmates, as well as random people who may come across our pages. It’s also a place to look back at our previous works and see how much we’ve improved. 2. How do Ball and Charlton define "multimodal" writing? Ball and Charlton define “multimodal” writing as meaning multiple and mode, and mode being defined as “a way of mean making or communicating. 3. Do you agree with Ball and Charlton when they claim "all writing is multimodal"? I do agree that all writing could be multimodal because all writing does have some type of linguistic, aural, visual, gestural, and spatial. 4. As a website author who will create your own web page content in this course, how would you rank the importance of the five modes on a scale of 1-5? Please provide a brief rationale to support each mode ranking. I would say all five modes are ranked a five because they each serve their own purpose. Linguistic is important because of course you should be able to know how to write clearly and properly for other people to want to read your work. Aural is also important because you want people to listen and talk about your work. Visual and spatial are work well together because you want your website to look organized and neat, and in order to do that you need to organize your links, post and categories in a way people will be able to easily use and understand. You want to be able to use colors that compliment each other, and use fonts and sizes that are easy for people to read. Finally, gestural is also important because it’s good to be able to connect with your audience. 5. What does the C.R.A.P. acronym stand for? The C.R.A.P acronym stands for: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. 6. As a website author who will create your own web page content in this course, how would you rank the importance of the four C.R.A.P. principles of design on a scale of 1-5? Please provide a brief rationale to support each design principle ranking. Contrast is a five become having different colors for certain headers or links helps a reader identify what the important things are. Repetition is a 4 because of course it’s important to have a consistent theme, but sometimes a person may want to switch it around. Alignment is a 5 because it does make it easier for a reader to go through your works and links. FInally, proximity would be a 4 because sometimes things don’t have to be too similar and you could switch it around. 7. What are the seven sample criteria Borton and Huot suggest writers use to assess a multimodal composition? The seven sample criteria that Borton and Huot suggest writers use to assess a multimodal composition are purpose, audience, tone, organization, transition, synthesis, and detail. 8. Do the Borton-and-Huot criteria seem similar or different from the criteria we would use to assess a traditional print essay? Why or why not? Borton and Huot criteria seem similar to a traditional print essay because the seven samples listed are all things that should be included and thought about while writing an essay, _
The Proust Questionnaire was first created by French writer Marcel Proust, who believed that by answering these questions a person would reveal their true identity. Some of these questions definitely made me question who I am as a person, and some of them were a bit strange. Overall, I think this questionnaire did serve its purpose and I did find out a bit more about myself and who I am as a person. __1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness is being able to be comfortable with myself. __2.__What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is standing in front of an audience and not knowing anything about the topic I'm supposed to be talking about. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The trait I deplore most in myself is how anxious I get. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? Rude people. Especially when they don’t realise they’re being rude, and have no self-awareness. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? My mom. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? I tend to buy a lot of clothes and then end up wearing the same three outfits. But the most expensive thing I've ever brought is my new phone, since it’s the first time I’m paying full price. __7.__What is your current state of mind? Very cluttered. I can’t seem to stay focused on something for more than a minute before getting distracted by something else. It has taken me a week to finish this, and I just tend to ramble a lot, in my head and to others. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Forgiveness. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? When I don’t want to hurt a person’s feelings, or I’m trying to get out of a situation. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? My posture. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? He’s dead, but just thinking about Ronald Reagan gets me angry. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? A sense of humor, someone who doesn’t try too hard and is empathetic. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? Someone who is kind and also has a lot of empathy. I just can’t vibe with someone who thinks it’s funny to be mean. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “King s**t “It's cool” “omg” “that’s wild” __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? My cat Leo. And also my mom. __16.__When and where were you happiest? I was happiest my last year in New York. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? I would like to be able to learn languages easily, and be able to speak multiple languages, especially ASL and French. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My voice. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? It might be graduating High School, only because neither of my parents graduated. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I would come back as a cat who has a good owner. __21.__Where would you most like to live? Somewhere in Spain. I love Spanish architecture and art. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? Either my 3DS or the Eevee plushie that my friend from New York got me. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Probably just being really conscious about yourself and your surroundings. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? Personally, it would be fun to be a tattoo artist/piercer. Special education teachers are also incredible. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? People usually say I’m kind. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? Honesty. __27.__Who are your favorite writers? Ned Vizzini really opened my eyes with his book It’s Kind of a Funny Story. I understood how the main character felt, and it helped me see things in a new perspective. I also like Oscar Wilde and Blythe Baird works. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? Isabella from Animal Crossing for her good work ethic. __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? I identity most with Oscar Wilde because his last words being, “I am in a duel to the death with this wallpaper, one of us has got to go” was a mood. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? I don’t know. __31.__What are your favorite names? I love names, but at the moment my favorite names are: Orion, Valerie, Dallas and Elias. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? People who think hating kids is a personality trait. __33.__What is your greatest regret? Not speaking up. __34.__How would you like to die? This is a weird question because I wouldn’t want to live long enough that I’m no longer able to take care of myself and need assistance, but I also don’t want to die too young from an accident or illness. I would just like to die painlessly. __35.__What is your motto? “This too shall pass." |
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