Last Blog Post

Over this semester I have grown a lot as a writer. I was able to be more creative and original with the writing that I do. I also was able to improve my research skills. I became more comfortable with the svsu library databases as well. Additionally, I became more comfortable with sharing my work with others. I am now more confident with my writing because of that. Overall, I feel that this class has helped me improve in several ways as a writer.

Final draft of revision piece

I am very happy with the final draft of my revision piece. I feel like I did a good job revising an essay into something that I could turn in as a final copy. I think that I chose a good piece to work with. The major change that I made was turning the essay into a narrative. I rewrote the essay in the form of a story to depict my feelings and actions. Overall, I am happy with my final draft of my revision piece and excited to see what grade I got on it.

Revision Piece

For my revision piece I chose to write a descriptive story. I have a ridiculous fear of airplanes, so I wrote about the first time that I ever flew on an airplane. I chose to do this piece because it was the most interesting of all of my in class writings. It began as just a paragraph on my biggest fear, and I revised it so it sounded more like a story. I like writing descriptive accounts of things that I have actually experienced so I believe that I will be able to do well on this. I feel that I can to do a lot with this piece and I am excited to continue to revise it.

Reading and literacy in my family

Reading and literacy is something that I feel my family finds very important. My parents have always instilled the importance of education and doing good in school to my brother and I. I feel that good reading and writing skills are essential for being successful in school. Therefore in order to do well, we must take reading and literacy seriously. My family always turns to each other when writing something important for school or work. My brother and I go to each other for advice on papers for school. I also frequently have my mom proof read my papers. My dad even asked my opinion on something that he had to write for his job before. We all take education very seriously and therefore reading and literacy are important aspects of our lives.

Success of My Short Project

Overall, I feel that my short project turned out well. My topic was about the affect that music from the 1960s has had on music today. Therefore, an article for a music based magazine was a great way to relay my topic to an interested audience. I feel that I incorporated all of the crucial aspects of a magazine article into my project. I formatted the article into columns that were justified. I also included bold titles and pictures that pertained to the topic of the article. Overall I am happy with my final project and hope that I did well on it.

Short Project

For my short project based on my research paper, I have decided to write a magazine article. The article will be something that you will most likely find in a music based magazine, such as Rolling Stones. I plan to depict how music of the 1960s has influenced musicians of today. I need to keep it concise, up beat, and interesting. I also need to include pictures with appropriate captions that go with my article. To make it look like a magazine article, I will format my article in columns that are justified. I also will have bold and catchy titles to keep my readers interested. I feel that this is the best way to convey the material of my research paper to the intended audience. 

Using Sources

When working with sources, there are always things that seem to come easy to me and also things that are a little bit more challenging. For this paper, I found that finding useful articles that contained history and interviews pertaining to my topic was very easy. It did not take long to get all of the information that I needed. Using the library database also was simple and very useful. The difficult part of using sources for this assignment was the fact that we needed to have a primary source. It was hard to find an adequate source that made sense for my paper that was just uninterpreted data and facts. It was also difficult to make sure that my sources were legitimate and unattainable through Internet search engines. Overall working with sources is kind of a double edged sword, there are aspects of it that are simple and others that take a little more work.

Revisions to Research Paper

I am currently writing a research paper regarding how much music of the 1960s has influenced today's music. An important revision that I am making to my draft is adding more examples of individual artists. I want to compare certain artists from the 60s to artists today. My first draft was just a general overview of influences with a few references to certain people or bands. However, I feel that if I elaborate more on individuals it will help the argument of my paper.

Academic Writing

I actually enjoy academic writing more than any other type of writing. In my high school English classes, most of the writing we did was academic writing. We were taught to always format our papers a certain way, never use contractions, never write in first person, and always cite our sources. Therefore it is sometimes difficult for me to write in a causal manner or different style. I always feel more comfortable with academic writing and more confident in my work.

Research

When I am assigned a research paper I usually use databases, such as the ones found in the Svsu library, to find my sources. I make sure that my sources are accurate and reliable. This process is extremely different than when I just look up something that I want to know. For that, I usually just use google and click the first thing that comes up. My academic research usually works well for me. Sometimes it is difficult to find the information that I need on the databases, however I know that what I do find is correct and reliable. It can be stressful at times to research this way, but it pays off in the end.

Finished Argument Essay

I just finished writing an argumentative essay based on Wikipedia in the form of a letter. During the writing process I struggled the most with keeping my paper in the form of a letter. It was difficult to present all of my ideas and also keep it sounding conversational. Therefore, when I revised my paper, I added a few words and phrases to keep the feel of a letter throughout the entire paper. Also, to address my intended audience I made my opinion on Wikipedia clear as well as presenting examples and details to back it up. Overall I feel that my paper turned out good and I am anxious to find out what my final grade will be.

Revisions

Currently I am in the process of writing an argumentative paper in the form of a letter regarding the reliability of Wikipedia. After doing the peer reviews in class and listening to other papers being critiqued out loud I realize what changes that I must make to my paper. I need to develop some of my ideas more clearly and explain the "why" aspect of each paragraph. Also, after hearing several other papers, I think that I need to focus more on the letter aspect of my paper.This is the most difficult part for me. I know what I want to say, but sometimes it is hard to convey that in the form of a letter to someone. Overall, I feel that revising my paper is going pretty well, however I am interested to see what others think of my changes and how well they work.

Troubles with my argument essay

I am currently in the process of writing an argumentative essay in the form of a letter regarding the credibility of Wikipedia articles. I am having some trouble with organizing my thoughts and ideas. I have a general idea of what I want to write about, however it is difficult to put it all together. Also, I'm having a hard time deciding what quotations to use and where to use them. The Wikipedia article that I am writing on is very reliable and accurate. However, a lot of the readings discuss how Wikipedia is controversial and not always trustworthy. I do not want to contradict myself by using certain quotes from these articles.

A time I was proud of what I wrote

  Last year I took a biology class and had to write a paper on a topic related to biology. I chose to write about microRNAs, something I had little interest in and knew nothing about. However, once I began writing my paper I grew more and more interested in microRNAs. I worked extremely hard on the paper and received an A. I ended up learning a lot through the writing process of this assignment and was happy with the ending results. Overall I was extremely proud of my writing and the grade I received for it.

What good grades mean to me

To me, good grades mean that I am working hard and taking my classes seriously. They show others as well as myself that I am a good student and I am serious about my future. Good grades illustrate what I am capable of accomplishing and reflect what type of student I am. Additionally, getting good grades means that I am one step closer to obtaining my degree. Therefore I take my grades very seriously and try my hardest to do as well as I can in all of my classes.