Collaborative thinking allows you to have more opinions on a certain topic. By getting in our groups of three, we were able to each express our own individual thoughts about the material, but then also be able to see how someone else’s opinion and how the three of us were thinking differently. Another set of eyes never hurts, especially in writing. In reading and writing, it is great to understand all sides of the material which can be eased by listening to others.
Literacy Guide Unit Reflection
While I was was writing my Literacy Guide to The New York Times, I learned an exponential amount of information about the writing process. One of the biggest things that I came to realize was how awful the drafting process truly was. Usually in high school, you write the first few facts that come to mind and you have yourself a decent paper – this is not the case in college. After meeting with Mrs. Forgette in conference, I realized that going through draft after draft is actually a good thing, and a vital part to the writing process. Several mandatory components of this guide caused me a great amount of stress, most particularly the writing analysis. In high school, my teachers stressed that we could read a certain story and be able to analyze what the author meant; never did I think of how they wrote. In the few weeks in this writing class I have realized that determining how an article is written and analyzing the rhetoric is what I struggle with the most. Throughout my writing process, I would have all of the “must-haves” except for these. This caused me to take a step back and thoroughly read through my guide and go back to the articles that I had included to try and get a good grasp on where an ideal location would be to insert these analyses. Although I had trouble with a few “must-haves”, some were vary favorable. After I completed the numerous homework activities about searching and selecting different article forms from The New York Times, I actually came to enjoy the differences between a news piece and an op-ed piece on the same subject. After completely disregarding my first draft and settling on four new sections, I can easily say that sifting through article after article deep within The Times was my most enjoyable part of this whole project. My Donald Trump section was the easiest to find different article forms, to no surprise. I knew that I could find the bulk of my “must-haves” with Mr. Trump because of the plethora of information that is circulating about him, but at the same time I knew that my guide would be at its best with the “must-haves” spread throughout. During class Wednesday, I came to fruition that I had written more of a “how to” guide than a writing analysis guide and that I had to start over. I wanted to have the majority of my guide written so that Mrs. Forgette could tell me how everything was coming along and possibly steer me in the right direction, so I knew that I had to act fast. That night, however, was the Presidential Debate which was something that I had been looking forward to for weeks and did not want to miss. At first I thought that attempting to watch the debate and write my guide would be disastrous, but then it hit me that I was writing about all of those people on stage so how could it hurt me. I will admit that I got distracted multiple times throughout the debate, and how could you not with all of those entertaining politicians. If I had just locked myself in my room with my earbuds in, I probably could have finished my entire draft that night with time to spare, but I don’t think that I would have changed a thing. I actually heard things during the debate that caused me to search subjects on The New York Times which I ended up including in my final draft. If I had to give myself any advice for future writing situations, I would tell myself that sometimes it is okay to write crap and go back and try again and again until you finally get it right.
I’m Scared of Myself
My biggest fear that I have experienced while writing my literary guide to The New York Times was failure. I don’t want to spend hours languishing on a paper and then get to class to see that everything that I did was wrong. During the drafting process I experience this fear a lot. I am unsure of whether or not to include a sentence or focus on a subject because I’m not positive on its validity in my paper. I know that in order to write this paper successfully, I will have to overcome this fear and will probably have to write multiple drafts before my final.
No Rules? No Problem.
Before I came to college, I had always thought that when it came to writing papers, I would be following strict guidelines. Now that I am in the second unit of my writing class, I have come to realize that writing is a lot harder when you actually have to do most of the thinking yourself. I had never thought that simply picking a topic and its structure would be so hard but I was wrong. This Literary Guide is like nothing that I have ever done before, but I feel that by doing it I will become a better writer.
Overcoming Group Discussions
Today in our group discussions on The New York Times, I learned how other people maneuver the page and find articles that interested them. The other students that were in my group said that they decided on their topic mainly by what was appearing more frequently on the home page. My group also liked to write about things that dealt with them, including their religious beliefs or their home town.
Comfort with The New York Times
I have actually used The New York Times before I had to purchase a subscription last week. I downloaded the NYT app onto my phone that would send me daily notifications every morning. I have always enjoyed reading news articles and watching news shows, so I definitely feel comfortable with using The New York Times in this class.
In-Class Essay Unit Reflection
The moment that I looked at my writing syllabus and saw that we had an essay exam on just the fourth class meeting, I started to panic. My high school was extremely small and did not focus a lot of its time on writing like it should have which did not allow me a lot of time to practice writing, especially in timed situations. The only times that I had ever experienced timed essay exams were the two ACT writing tests that I took. During our first week of class, we focused a lot on the different types of questions that could possibly show up on our exam on Monday which helped me decide which of the three questions I wanted to write about. I chose the question about the media’s effects both good and bad on the University of Mississippi. I recognized all three possible choices but ultimately felt that I could expand my thoughts more thoroughly on question number three. Last summer I participated in the Trent Lott Leadership Institute for rising seniors and was introduced to the political world. Ever since then I have been fascinated by politics but I have become seriously engaged with the 2016 election. As I read The Education of a Lifetime, I enjoyed the sections on the Presidential Debate of 2008 between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. I felt that I both knew more about that question and would actually enjoy writing on the subject. After I went through orientation in June, I started reading The Education of a Lifetime and finished later that week. When reading, it did not come to my attention that I would need to read at an in-depth level to be able to answer questions once classes began. Once classes started and I realized that I needed to have a pretty good grasp on the book, I decided that I had to read the book again. My strategies when rereading was to put marks on parts that I felt were important which came in handy during the exam when I didn’t have to try and decipher the crazy order of events in Khayat’s book. I learned many lessons from both the book and the writing process itself. Learning so many interesting stories of Ole Miss and how it has evolved over the years was what made the book so intriguing. Visualizing the strides that Khayat made and wondering how Ole Miss would look today if Robert Khayat had not become Chancellor were also notes that I took away. Reading the book was valuable indeed but I think that our writing unit was just as important if not more. Our writing unit was intimidating to look at on the syllabus especially for the first week of freshman year. I said earlier that I don’t have the greatest writing background when it comes to someone reading and grading my finished product although I do enjoy writing for fun. The first week of assignments made you read the book at a comprehensive level. The discussions in class furthered our knowledge and interpretation of the book while simultaneously breaking down the barriers between the students. Even though I started off the unit panicked and stressed, I learned over the week how to prepare for an essay exam and become familiar with the college writing procedure.
Resiliency: The New Orleans Story
I read the article A Decade After Katrina, New Orleans Is Partying Again, and Still Rebuilding published on August 29, 2015. This article talked about how different members of the New Orleans community are remembering the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It’s hard for me to believe how many families are still recovering from Katrina’s devastating effects. The article stated how several events were planned for that day including volunteer projects, worship services, and parades. This day was a day of celebration for how far the people have come but also a day of remembrance to all that was lost. One piece of this article that stuck out to me was at the end when a Facebook announcement for a Mardis Gras parade noted that this event was not commemorating the anniversary of Katrina, which I thought was interesting for them to include. I chose this article because I remember when Hurricane Katrina occurred and how it affected my family all the way in the Mississippi Delta. I had several family members living on the coast that had their lives changed because of Katrina, and I have always had a fascination for natural disasters like hurricanes even though I am extremely afraid of them.
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