Critical Thinking and Questioning
This daybook entry on academic writing is in the critical thinking and questioning section because it asked a question that nobody ever thinks about. We think of academic writing as research papers that have to be grammatically correct, but this entry wanted us to think what it actually was. Academic writing is taking your ideas and connecting them into a constructive format, but it could also be many other things. This entry was supposed to see what we though academic writing was and then we would share as a class what we each thought. It seemed that many of the responses were the same. The five paragraph essay, grammar and perfection on the first try were all common responses. It shows that many of us follow a specific format. To me, this is asking whether or not we are writing creatively.
This is in this section because it is about analyzing a short story. The short article we read called, "I just want to be average" was about literacy sponsors. Meaning, who had influenced our literacy up to today? For Rose, his teacher inspired him to to do better and to apply for college. For him, most of his teachers had no care in the world. This lead to the point in his article where he states, "students will float to the mark you set." This means that students will only do as well as the teacher expects. If the teacher does not care too much the students will do as little as possible. If the teacher expects a lot, then the students will strive to do their best. This lead to brainstorming for our literacy narrative because we were able to see which teachers pushed us hard to become who we are today. Also, we could see which teachers had a negative influence on our literacy.
This entry on navigating genres was posted in this section because it questions our knowledge on genres. We had to read an article on genres for this daybook entry. It provided a whole new viewpoint on what I thought on genres. Before, I just though of a genre as something such as a book genre. I was not correct. It could be anything from the type of music to how you present a particular piece of information. Instead of stating what a genre is, the author explained to us in a different genre to explain the concept, which I thought was very helpful. It gave insight as to how it should work. Knowing this, I can translate certain pieces of work into other genres, such as research paper to something like the game board I created. It is weird to think about, but it is possible.
Learning and Connecting
I chose this entry on learning about sensory details because it really taught me how to bring the reader into the authors position. Through sensory details the author can create a sense of feeling and relatability to what the piece is saying. For example, before I would have just said, "the guy ate a sandwich." Now, I would say, "the guy took a large bite into his juicy sandwich." Something along those lines will work. Before, it was really boring and dry, but by adding sensory details, it gives the piece excitement. I could use this in future pieces to expand on something that needs to be explained with great detail in order to help the reader understand.
This entry on framing practice is in the learning and connecting section because it showed us how to take information from a source without plagiarizing it. It is a really beneficial skill because you can get in major trouble for taking the writers exact words. I had already known this before, but I have trouble with this kind of stuff. Once it has been said, it's like that's the only way it can be said. I can do it, but it takes a little while for me to translate it into my own words. I am getting better at it as I have written all those blog entries for my research blog. This skill is definitely going to be helpful for many other classes that require research papers.
This entry on practicing genre is on the learning and connecting section because it really opened my eyes to all the rules to particular genres. I have never thought about all the things that make a certain genre what it is. One thing that was hard for me when filling in all these was how closely related the things are. For example, structure and format. They both seem like they would be the same, but they are not. It is still hard for me to differ between these. At least now, I can identify certain aspects of genre that make it what it is. This can be connected into other classes that would require me to create something I do not know how to create, such as short stories. There are certain rules that they follow and if you want a piece to sound like a short story, then you just need to abide by those rules.
This topic worksheet is on the learning and connecting section because it showed me how to use the Universities large database full of information just waiting to be used. It was challenging at first coming up with synonyms and keywords that would lead to exactly what you wanted to find, but the end result would give you what you want. An article with information that can be used for your research blog! Before, I would just search on Google and click on the first link that was related to my topic, but now I can access databases full of information. This will surely be useful in my future classes when I need to look up information.
Writing Process
The literacy narrative brainstorming is in the writing process section because it really shows the outline of my memories that I would used in my paper. It brought back a lot of memories that I thought I would never revisit. It allowed me to see how the past shaped me into who I am today. For me, I saw that my pure carelessness affected how I performed up until middle school where I actually started to try. It put a toll on me and I really needed to try to catch up with the other students who seemed to know what they were doing. Everything that came to my mind was jotted down on these two pages. This can be seen as I had started writing on the side because I ran out of room. (I did not want to waste paper.) I thought this daybook entry was the most helpful of all. It was true brainstorming and I was able to pick and choose which pieces of information I wanted to use for my paper.
This entry on my MGP brainstorming is in the writing process tab because it was really the beginning to my multi-genre project. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and how I would do it. I ended up creating a short story, a poster and a game board. These all came out to my expectations because they all took a lot of hard work. I did not want to turn in something that would show how lazy I was. The challenge I had was figuring out whether or not my pieces were complex or not.All my pieces fit perfectly with my research because they could easily translate from a factual format. Although, the short story needed a bit of work. I needed to implement emotion as well as information to create a story. This was risky for me because I am not a very good writer, but I thought it would be fun to create my own story and it was. I am able to control what happens when and how.
This multi-genre project workshop entry is on the writing process section because I was able to show and get feedback on what I thought I was doing good and bad. For me, I thought the best part of my project was the game board because it involved a lot of interaction between it's audience and also, it is very creative. It did not take a long time to put together, but to think about how it needed to be laid out took a bit longer. The one thing I had trouble with when completing the multi-genre project was the authors statement. It was really an abstract piece of work that took a while. At some points I became lost when writing it. There really is no other way to write it. If I were able to use bullet points to explain my pieces I could, but that is all part of the challenge. Anyway, through this workshop I was able to see how I could improve my project.T
In Class Process Work
This entry above was peer feedback for my authors statement. As I mentioned above, I had trouble writing my authors statement, so this was supposed to help me out and give me suggestions. Reading other peoples authors statements gave me an idea on how I should base it because I had no idea what I was really supposed to do. Also, with this feedback I was able to change what the reviewer though could use improvement.
This entry is on the feedback I got from our introduction to my research blog. In this workshop we were instructed to read each others introductory paragraphs and answer the following questions about it. I was able to see what I was doing well and what needed improvement. As seen above, the reviewer liked my introductory paragraph, so there was not much that I needed to change. Basically, it was a checklist to see when reading it the audience would know what the blog was going to be about exactly.