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.