Final Blog Entry

As the semester comes to a close I feel as though I am a much more sophisticated writer. As I stated at the beginning of the semester, I do not follow the traditional process of creating an outline then writing the paper. I am more of a "puke all the words on the paper" and revise kind of girl. Although I have found it helpful in order to get all the points I'd like to across to the reader, it often takes a while to revise. I definitely used this process in my Cycle 1 paper. It took a lot of revisions in order to make it flow properly, but I am proud of the outcome. It was great to get all my thoughts out, then supporting them with evidence and finally creating an organized piece.  I relate this to Lamot’s article “Shitty First Drafts.” She is completely correct in that it is crazy to assume people can produce masterpieces from the start.  It is ‘to each their own’ how they start, but editing and revisions are must.



Throughout the year I believe I have for the most part kept the same writing process.  I have had to use a lot more research this year which helped create more of a structure when creating my chaotic first draft.  Although it has basically stayed the same, I have definitely grown and learned a lot about my writing process in this class.  All of the readings were great to see how others write and realize that there is no right or wrong way to go about the writing process.   

Digital Story Challenges

I found the digital story project to be extremely fun! I do not have a Mac so it was challenging to figure out how iMovie worked on my roomates computer but it was also a lot of fun.  Once I figured it all out, it was great to see things come together at the end.  The only huge challenge I faced was the amount of time it took to create the whole thing and put it together.  Some things that were time consuming were: citing all of the photos, making the music levels appropriate, and making the voice-over sound controlling.  After these issues were over-come it was smooth sailing.

After the conference, I went back to edit my presentation and I was extremely bummed to see that alot of the music and some of the voice-overs did not save.  I had to re-do the ENTIRE project (pictures, music, voice-overs, etc.) the day before it was due! It was absolutely the worst feeling ever...can someone say DEJA VU?! After it was done though, I was pretty happy with the final outcome and extremely relieved it was finished.

Digital Stories

According to Fields and Diaz’s Community Through Digital Storytelling, the main seven elements of a digital story are point of view, dramatic question, emotional content, the gift of your voice, the power of the soundtrack, economy, and pacing.   Although digital stories are not a type of writing, they are extremely great ways to tell stories.  Digital stories are great ways for academia.  They allow their viewers to use the same analytical thinking as papers or any type of text do, they just include images.  In addition to images, they have soundtracks and voice narration which create a strong sense of pathos to lure the viewer in more and feel a part of the story.  Digital stories not only are useful for academic purposes, but according to Fields and Diaz’s piece, they exhibit many different characteristics as well.  Many corporations and large companies use digital stories in order to create their image.  They are also used to send messages to their viewers, or even just for entertainment.  A digital story is just another way for humans to express a message and reach out to its viewers. 

XOXO, College Girl

Group Projects

 Group projects are extremely bittersweet for me.  I love that you can get so many ideas from different angles which are great for brainstorming and collaborating ideas.  I also love the intrapersonal aspect of working in a group.  It is also great when you are grouped with people who are easy to work with (my group!!). It is sometimes challenging to all agree on how things should work or making schedules overlap.  Also, it is hard often to compromise; there were no serious issues with this project but with some previous experiences in my life it is a struggle for everyone to agree sometimes.  For this project, it was great working in a group.  Individually, it would have been a much harder project.  There would have been a lot more research for each person to do, and less variety because it would be a one-minded project.  Overall, I am extremely happy we got to work in groups and bring our resources and information from all different types and groups of people together to create a strong paper. 

XOXO, College Girl

Thoughts about Readings

This week's and last week's readings were great openers! That is the best way I can think to describe it.  All the pieces (Sommer's "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers"; Nathan's "The Art of College Management"; and Kleine's "What is it we do . . .") were all extremely relatable and relevant to our classroom.  They brought out the positives and negatives of students, which also brought up some moral issues.  Sommer's piece on revising was great, discussing the techniques and differences between students and adult writers.  Now, just saying someone is an adult does not make them any more a better writer or more experienced.  Although, my favorite piece was Nathan's "The Art of College Management."  For starters I love how he uses the word management in regards to cheating! Also, the points he makes (see previous post) are very relatable and require the reader to think a little.  


These articles made me more aware when 'cheating' (not that I cheat, but to think about school work and how it could affect my morals, rather than if it fits the definition).  I liked the different perspectives of adults and students and the ways (and differences) that they revise.  Kleine's piece on research was extremely interesting considering research is my least favorite part of any paper.  It allowed me to think outside of the box and to have a different, more positive view on research.


XOXO, College Girl

Cheating... Thoughts?

               I thoroughly enjoyed Nathan’s piece “The Art of College Management.” I thought it was extremely cool how she chose to not just study cheating, but gather some primary information by putting herself in the situation of a common student.  Cheating is a very serious topic that has created many issues of honesty within the learning world.  I agree with most of the points made in the chapter, but it is hard to have a ‘black and white’ view on this topic because there is so much grey area.  For example, signing someone else’s name on an attendance sheet: is that actually cheating? It is not harming or hurting the student who is in class signing the sheet, and it is only the person who did not show up to class who is hindered from the situation.  I agree it should be part of an honor code, and it is not morally right, but does that mean it is cheating?  When talking about taking the character of a student, I like how the author has an open mind and took the time to see the perspective of a student.  It is hard for a student to feel that they should not cheat, or check answers with someone else if they feel as though it is a worthless assignment or a class they just need to pass in order to finish their general education classes.  I do believe though, that just because a student believes that those forms of cheating are “not that bad,” does not mean they are cheating.  The rules are made to be followed so all students have a fair chance, and just because you don’t believe in them does not mean you have the right to break those rules. 

XOXO, College Girl

Reading Aloud

During conferences, reading my paper aloud was a great learning tool! When writing a paper, you tend to not write exactly what is in your head.  If you are listening to music or talking, you may write one of those words instead of finishing a sentence correctly.  It was a great indicator of how other people would read my paper and how it would sound to them.  It was a great tool to discover run-ons, and to see if the paper flowed smoothly.  Reading it out loud, helps to make sure the paper flows as you would like it. 

 I definitely benefitted from this exercise.  It allowed me to figure out if the diction was a good fit for my paper.  It also allowed me to make sure my paper had a focus with an appropriate flow.  I also thought it was a fitting exercise because it allowed me to see if I used words too often or incorrectly. 

I also benefitted from it by hearing other peoples' papers.  It was good to hear what they had to say, what type of writers they were, and to hear how they interpretted the prompt.  It also a great exercise having everyone critique all the papers in the conference in order to think about writing from a different stand point.

XOXO, College Girl

"New" Literacy Sources

The article “iPoetry: Creating Space for New literacies in the English Curriculum” from the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, is about a study in which teachers tried to instill digital poetry into a group of sophomores’ curriculum.  Students were directed to read, critique, and then using a poem they wrote traditionally, they had to transform that poem using different forms of digital medias.  Curwood and Cowell, the authors of this piece and the implementers of this experiment, stated “we sought to infuse new literacy practices to enhance students’ critical engagement, increase their awareness of audience, and encourage their progressive use of multiple modalities” (111).  They could see the different ways students used their creativeness to express their new poems through different applications such as blogging, social networking, and visual editing.  They also stated that “while literacy skills are still rooted in decoding, comprehension, and production, the modalities within which they occur extend far beyond alphabetic print text (Gomez, Schieble, Curwood, & Hassett, 2010).

 This article was FANTASTIC and brought to light many of the elements I will try to argue in my piece about the new age of literacy that is dawning.  It is extraordinary the support they provide and emphasis on moving towards a new day in age where we are using our literary talents and exploring many different applications and mediums available. 

Jenn Scott, Curwood, and Cowell Laura Lee. "IPoetry: Creating Space for New Literacies in the English Curriculum." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 55.2 (2011). EBSCOhost Discovery. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=6&hid=1&sid=42871a99-a1cb-4597-aa37-7518e337fbd8%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=66819936>.

According to “Information Literacy, “New” Literacies, and Literacy” in The Library Quarteryly, there has been the HUGE controversy of whether or not these “new” forms are qualified to be known as literacy.  Also, they question if the contrast between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ literacy forms are actually that different.  John Buschman begins the article arguing that “Literacy was once thought to be well understood and well defined, particularly through the consequences of its alternative, illiteracy: poverty, backwardness, lack of access to the intellectual and emotional riches that reading brought and the economic advances that literacy enabled” (1). The negative stance that illiteracy brings, creates the pedestal for literacy to rise upon.  This pedestal is questioned with the many new different forms that writing is brought to attention with. 

This article was a great piece for analytical thinking.  It has a lot of information, with the counter-argument mentioned which helps prove his theories on the evolution of literacy. Buschman has great arguments regarding these mediums containing theoretical voice and has also introduces the view of social literacy as being the main idea for this change in literacy.

Information Literacy, “New” Literacies, and Literacy

By John Buschman

The Library Quarterly , Vol. 79, No. 1 (January 2009), pp. 95-118

XOXO, College Girl

Thompson's Views on New Literacy

“An age of illiteracy is at hand, right?” Wrong, this is such a rash statement that has not solid support.  There is no argument that can contrast to the fact that because of technological advances, there is less reading from dictionaries, thesauruses, and magazines, but Sutherland left out the idea that since we rely on the internet so much, it has just become our primary source.  People use the internet to read articles from newspapers, browse the millions of blogs, and to keep in contact with people around the world.  Although texting may hinder our abilities to communicate face-to-face with a person, I strongly believe that we are not on a slippery slope towards illiteracy. 

               I 100-percent agree with Lunsford in that we are among, as she calls it, “a literacy revolution.” People are using their freedom and creativity to write in ways that were never thought of as ‘correct’ or ‘proper.’ The day and age we are in allows people to openly be who they are and to find themselves through different forms of art.  Some people may not agree that writing, or song lyrics, or interior design are art forms, but I believe that as long as there is a sense of expression, it is art. 

               Now, back to the whole LITERACY part of Thompson’s article.  One major difference in modern writing, compared to previous eras, is that papers are now more commonly written for a specific audience.  One writing piece I had to write for a specific subject was in my Communications class last semester.  I had to write a piece, persuading the class to change something to better their daily lives.  I wrote about how college students do not drink enough water, and the simple solution was carrying around a reusable water bottle on a daily basis.  Although there is a huge statistic of people who do not drink enough water, I narrowed my thoughts and points to those that would attainable and relatable to my audience. 

XOXO, College Girl

Rhetorical Situation

This advertisement is one I found on a website called “The Essentialist,” along with all the ads from the Chanel Accessories Ad Campaign from the Spring/Summer collection of 2009. The main focus of the ad is to raise awareness of the brand and their accessories, in this case the black and white clutch.  The rhetorical situations starts off with the pathos present because the emotion brought out is a strong sense of envy and desire to imitate those in the picture. Everything in the ad has a white and grey tone to it in order to accentuate the dark blacks which bring out the main accessory, the brand logo on the shopping bag, and the dark hair of the handsome man in the corner.  Not only do the colors help accentuate, but they create an air of mystery for the viewer.  The clothing the two beautiful women are wearing are white to represent the innocence and heaven-like qualities that the viewer could obtain just by having this clutch.  The white also brings out the irony of the ad because white is usually seen as a virgin quality, yet there is a sultry-looking, handsome man lying in bed with her.  This luxurious lifestyle is one that is wanted by all and OBVIOUSLY obtainable, JUST by buying this bag! Since this is a visual ad, there is not much logos present.  It may be argued that ethos is slightly present because if the wealthy use this product, then it must be worth it.  Although, that is an extremely stretched idea and some people may argue that it is not considered ‘credible.’

XOXO, College Girl

http://theessentialist.blogspot.com/2009/02/chanel-accessories-ads-springsumer-2009.html

My Writing Process

To be honest, I am not the best writer and over the years I have tried many different writing techniques.  In elementary school, we learn that in order to write a suitable paper, we have to start with an organizational web to sort out all our thoughts, followed by a paper that is eventually grammatically corrected.  In middle school, I was taught to use an outline then finish writing the paper by elaborating form the outline.  In high school, we were expected to know how to write but then learned how to polish the paper.  Since being in college, when writing papers, I try to get all my thoughts out on the paper then organize it.  I start usually with one thought then add on.  I tend to add random thoughts at the end of the page until I can work them into my paper.  Then at the end I go through it and edit the paper to the best of my ability.  This process has worked great so far and has helped me with getting all my thoughts down and including them into a great paper. 

               The only issue with this process is that it often can become chaotic and unorganized.  After I get all my thoughts down on the paper, reading it out loud is the only way I can make sure the paper flows properly.  I also usually have to take a lot of what I thought was vital to the message of my paper, out because it didn’t work with the flow of the paper.   After I fix my papers I try to have another student, tutor, or professor to revise my paper.  I generally have issues with writing how I talk which, depending on the teacher’s preferred style, sometimes is frowned upon.  Although writing is not my strong suit, I write the best papers I can using almost the same technique as Lamot in her piece “Shitty First Drafts.”

XOXO, College Girl