The LAST blog!!!!

In the beginning of the quarter, I categorized myself as a critical thinker, and as a writer more of a "scientist" in the the sense that I am always analyzing my ideas to reflect on. I see now that I knew myself pretty well right off the bat. I am still that kind of writer, but I gained more knowledge on my identity  as a writer that I had never considered. Through my tools I focused on this quarter I was able to pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses along with my differences as a writer. Overall, I learned that when writing I am a person with a lot of personality. I am also the type of writer that likes to possess a style of writing that is personal, yet still covers the argument in a strong and educated way. Lastly, I am an "observer" in the way that I like to view others work to create my own argument and ideas. At the beginning of the quarter I saw myself spending most of my time focusing on the small errors and analyzing every little detail. Now I spend time on a larger scale, on more of an overview of inner and outer thoughts. I show more identity and create a more original work. This idea of identity was completely new to me, however, I found the purpose in the end that lead me to discover initially myself. I improved as a writer by using this skill as it made my writing a more advanced and less emerging piece of work. Although I learned a vast amount of skills and knowledge in this class, I still want to stick to my initial idea that writing is a process and not a product. I will always be a student in the way that I will always be learning the process of writing. I look forward to becoming better and better each year!

Identity Challenge

The state of my essay revealed initially who I am as a writer! It was a great way to uncover the layers of my writing and the layers of my personality, some of which were levels I were not even aware of! The essay went on about how others influence me and how identity is a key element to becoming a better writer. As a academic writer and a student I found that creating an argument and setting a hypothesis to who I would discover myself in the end of my research would add to the quality of my essay. Overall i found more about myself then I intended and grasped a wider concept of the impacts of blogging and what this exercise was really comprised of.

connections made...

      When reading West's article, I began to be captivated over the results of the students identities. The author, Kathleen C. West, provided many supporting arguments to her outcome through her informative chart, and through her knowledge of digital composing. In my class, I can start to see true personalities as well through my classmates blogs. Before the class I knew none of them, and now, I can start to see through the shadows of their own reflections as students and as individuals. West had the same impression through her study with her students as well. As I read on through her article, I began to draw connections between her students and myself along with the classmates that are in my class. Everyone has their own identity, and carries genres of different qualities with them too. In my paper, my task will be to dig deeper then reading West's article, and reading the lines between my fellow classmates. My initial goal is to define and label my own identity as a blogger, and as a person. This will force me to succinctly discover my own qualities and traits.

Essay Prompt 2:

       For this essay assignment, I feel that I will gain more than just a skill, but also unfold who I am essentially through my writing. This may be the most difficult task because finding one's self through self reflection will take a lot of time, however, finding my true identity will be very rewarding. After reading what West had to say about her students uncovering themselves as individuals and writers I became very engaged and inspired to follow this structure as a goal to reveal myself. The chart used by West was very effective! I may even look at it as a guideline for how I will create an overview of my qualities and personality. It's crazy to think that this whole time I myself have been creating an identity through digital composing, and I didn't even realize it.

          I found many points from Kathleen C. West's article "weblogs and literary response" to be significant. Starting off, I became engaged in how much she dedicated her time to compose this article. I really began to notice that because she was talking about a topic that interested her, she could create a well written piece.Education became her  main topic of discussion and very relevant to the relationships between K-12 students and college students. She proves to be so devoted also as she tries to further explain how she wants education to be a memorable period for students to look back on. I believe that through her devotion her major purpose for writing this article would be to allow other students new ways of learning, and to explain to others of this change. Overall, reading this article was very important to me. I realized that the identity her students created through blogs and within the Heffernan and Lewison reference, they closely relate to me and what I am doing in this academic writing class. Also, I saw a similar passion for such new learning techniques in my core teacher, just as I saw it in West. Literature conversational blogs as well as self reflections is an effective was of teaching from student to student or student to professor.

Free-Write: Essay Reflection

      Overall, I felt that my first composition in this class went well. I followed the prompt and continued to use my skills that I contained along with the ones I gained from this class. The process was long and arduous at first, but after a while, through peer evaluations, I began to catch on to how to become an academic writer. This exercise will definitely help me with further essays and compositions in the near and distant future.

The Process of Writing

       Essay 1 taught me a lot about my own writing process. It brought me to realize that I am the type of writer that writes a paragraph then analyzes it as if it were a science experiment. I am slow but steady. I also took in consideration that I tend to have a hard time with the pre-writing step. Its hard for me to choose my thesis and my focal point,  but once I have it I pick up the speed and can write a good essay. I feel that the revising part of the writing process was the most essential because I got to grasp a larger understanding of my essay. I was also able to hear what others thought of my ideas and with the helpful tips I could revise my essay into a stronger piece of work.

They Say, I Say Reflection

       I will apply many of the concepts from the book, They Say I Say, to improve my essay. I found that within the novel basic moves are expressed which can help me understand the difference and similarities between what others have to say, and what one has to say. Engaging through others thoughts is a skill I use daily. I t helps me learn new ways to do or look at things. Other peoples knowledge gets passed down to others so they can learn those concepts too. Its all a cycle of what they say, and what I say. This can help me a lot with my essay as it will give me more ways to approach or propose an argument. The novel also provides templates to help guide me along the way. I think this tool will make my essay much stronger. By revising  my essay using this guide I will step back in a sense and read over  my essay with the understanding of other peoples views verse my own. More specifically, I will think about how my blog chosen was a universal organizational blog, and many other people are expressing themselves over global media. When I make m y own argument I have to take in consideration that others say things because they are all different and because they come from different backgrounds on the issue. This is important for my essay and for life. I think the skills taken from the book can help me all throughout my life.

Presentation Reflection

       Overall, I believe my presentation was good. I tried m y best to stay on topic and support my argument of how identity is revealed through the PETA organizations blog website. It was a difficult task but then I realized it was a topic that I could relate to and have an interest for. When I presented I made a seven minute presentation which was not bad at all. The minimum was a five minute speech so I didn't exceed too much. My slides were well organized, however I think one of my slides, about the blog site and my process of researching on my blogs website could have been fine without it.

Blogging in relation to my essay

Blogging has impacted my skills as a writer and as a person. I have been affected by what others have expressed personally, and through such social media I have formed new ways to strengthen my self as a composer. Blogging includes many examples based on your topic to show a sense of strength in your writing. While writing my essay, I found that when stating any argument or idea, supporting elements such as examples from other sources can really prove your argument to be an educated topic of discussion. The section within the blogging novel I read, that stands out the most In relation to my essay would be the idea of "social media", and that it allows others to freely express themselves and develop character. While writing anything at that matter, voice helps the reader stay focused on what the writer was trying to explain. In my essay, the main idea that I am to identify is that through blogging identity is apparent, which is true, just as the book had mentioned. I have read it and experienced it first hand. Blogging can be such a wide open aspect of countless ranges. You can pretty much talk about anything and through your opinions you develop who you really are. Overall, blogging in relation to my essay is a very useful source that allows me to create who I am as a writer, and as a human being in the world as we know it today. 

Writing Conference

Based on the strong feedback I received from the writing conference, I intend to revise my essay in a more precise format in relation to my essay topic. I thought my piece of writing was near complete, however, I came to the assumption that my ideas expressed needed to be backed up with more key examples to strengthen my argument. While the students went over there essay piece by piece I began to catch on to the repetitive or common errors that existed throughout several of the essays. I was a good learning experience for me to try and look at others compositions as it helped me to figure out how I am going to make my essay even better. I am the type of person that writes essays that are lengthy, so cutting down and making more of my word choice clear and precise was another key element that I found essential to my writing process. I feel that now I have been asked to go back over my essay and fix such common mistakes, I will not be as confused or lost. Overall, the writing conference opened my eyes to new angles of writing, both good and bad.

Animal Cruelty Research

My research process so far has been pretty simple. At first I had no idea about choosing my topic, or where to start looking. Luckily, I decided to begin my research at  a website that includes a blogging tab of all the most essential blogs in regards to my topic. Animal cruelty as I came to notice, was a larger organization which expressed their total group identity very well over several blog entries however, some difficulties did arise when forming my research. Such challenges would most likely include; picking through the vast amounts of entries to find the most striking or key points relating to my topic,and trying to decipher the voice of the messages in order to make a strong argument based on the  organization. 

A New Generation

Jill Walker Rettberg's illustration on page 159 within her novel, "Blogging, Digital Media and Society Series (2008)" states, " In terms of privacy, democracy, and communication, blogging and social networking sites are changing our culture." This strong statement whether others realize it or not, is in fact true. Social networks are shaping our society in ways generations ago would have never imagined. As our society becomes more high-tech, the idea of one’s personal identity reveals itself as we develop new techniques of media. Let's face it, Face Book, YouTube, and many other social media sites are exposing the privacy of others every day. From uploading images, to posting blogs, ones identity becomes an aspect of publicity. Just as Rettberg implies on page 120, "as we study ourselves in a mirror, shaping our features so our reflections please us, we create a reflection of ourselves in a weblog." The main concepts identified throughout the text go on to explain the importance of blogging. Not only can others express their personal reflections, they may also develop into journalists and advertisers. As journalist, others can blog over a genre of topics that interest them as well as others. The examples provided within the book complimented the ways in which others choose to journal over blogs. The topic of advertisements via blogs has become a common way for the world of business to expand. Blogging has become just another way to expose one’s self, and or ideas. Our culture is indeed changing at a rapid speed. Whether it be interacting with those over the internet, or expressing yourself through media, blogging and many other networks are sculpting the next generation in ways people today could never imagine.

Traveling

        The types of blogs that would interest me the most are focused towards traveling because once I graduate from college, I will begin to experience new areas of the world. Wittnessing the cultural differences each area would possess would become very benefitial to me. This is because becoming more aware of each country would give me a better economic, social and political understanding. Traveling is more than taking a relaxing vacation, but rather to widen the aspects of knowledge and grasp a deeper meaning behind all cultures of the world as well as their historic and present day background.

who i am as a writer

Symbolically, as a writer I can be illustrated as a scientist. Creating a hypothesis of new ideas and concepts to form my initial product. When reading over the text I am slow but steady to investigate the deeper meanings of  how and why.