Striving and Learning through My Academic Year

When first given the task of journaling in the Commonplace Book, I saw it as a burden and just one more thing that I had to do every week. As the semester went on, I realized that sometimes writing my thoughts out into posts helped me develop ideas, learn how to approach new assignments and gain an understanding of what I had read that past week. There are five tags that I chose to use in my Commonplace Book; Impact, Resilience, Learning Through Reading, Helpful Lesson, and Structure.
The tag Impact is meant to label the journals that had impacted my life in some way. In addition, this impact could have been big, small, bad or good. Over the time of journaling in my Commonplace Book, I came across several impactful readings. One being an article on the Sigma Chi Fraternity on Campus. This directly impacted myself, because I am also part of the Greek Community. Seeing that there are Title XI problems within my own community opened my eyes to the degrading of men and women within the Greek community. Also in this post read about loneliness, which impacts lives every day. Reading this article, I saw how much you truly need people who care about you in your life. Once reading this article, I promised myself that I would appreciate the people who surround me with love more often. Through these readings, I learned that impactful reading doesn’t always have to be academic but can be found all around.
The second tag I saw as a good demonstration of my posts was resilience. I use the tag resilience in the sense of pushing through even when I have hit a wall. This includes, but it not limited to my writing or somewhere in my life. In the reflection called Thought on Argument Paper, it is clear how much I struggled with deciding how to develop my writing. At the time of the post, I was stuck on what information to include and how to organize my paper to where it was fluent to the reader. This continued to be a struggle for myself throughout the whole assignment. However, I did not let it stop me from developing an idea and trying different ways of organizing my paper until I found a way that helped get my point across. This was one of the hardest assignments that I had to push through on. In fact, I sometimes would just want to give up. At times during my conferences, it was determined that I would have two different papers in one. I did not let this discourage me. I was able to develop a paper that I am proud of today, even if the grade wasn’t the best one this semester. I now know that I need the characteristic of resilience throughout these next three years in college.
Learning Through Reading is the next tag that I used to describe my posts. This tag relates mainly to the weekly reflections where I read articles from the New York Times and write my thoughts throughout the week. Writing about the articles and things that I had read that week helped me actively read. Learning Through Reading is when I would gain new knowledge after an article I read that week whether it was in The New York Times or in another class. The entry that best portrays this tag is the entry from March 7th. In this post, I learned how much reading a peer’s paper can help my own paper. After reading over another student’s paper on the same assignment it helped me recognize elements and strategies that they used in their paper that could also help me with my paper. I would never have thought that I would learn so much about an assignment. Sometimes, I would gain a different viewpoint or perspective from another student writing. This showed me that not only is it beneficial to the student who wrote the paper, but also to myself because reading helps you learn and realize things you didn’t know before.
Throughout this semester, I have learned many Helpful Lessons that have helped myself improve and become a better writer. In addition, in my Commonplace Book, I included the tag Helpful Lesson. A Helpful Lesson were the posts that contributed to my growth and understanding. The most helpful lesson learned during my journals was the library lesson. During class, we went to a presentation at the library to become more familiar with the library technologies and its research tools. Once knowing how to navigate my way through the library’s great resources, it has helped me in my classes. Now, whenever I need to research or have a reliable source on any type of topic, I know exactly where to get it. Another thing that was great about learning about the libraries resources is that now I do not have to worry about the source not being reliable. This newly gained knowledge through a single lesson really demonstrates how something so simple can be so helpful across my educational experience.
Structure was common tag when discussing my writing. Ever since I have had to write papers, I have struggled with structure. However, throughout this semester, I have developed a lot as a writer. Looking back at the semester now, I feel that it has become much easier to structure my papers through the different assignments we were given in this class. One of the most difficult papers that I struggled with its structure was the argumentative paper. In the post Struggles with Argumentative paper, I reflected on what I needed to overcome to start my assignment and the structure of the paper kept stumping me. This paper was especially difficult in that department because I was not accustomed to including research, my point of view, and a counter argument all in one paper. By having to overcome my struggle with structure, I believe it has made me more prepared to structure more complicated papers that will be in my future.
Looking at the semester as a whole, the Commonplace Book helped me a great deal within my academic and personal life learning moments. I was able to use this website as an outlet to organize and analyze my thoughts about the various assignments I was given. By pushing through the obstacles that I faced within my writing and life, I believe I have become more prepared for what is to come. Not only have I improved in my writing, but also in other parts of my academic learning. The Commonplace Book has trained me to actively read, look deeper into what I am doing, and push through the struggles that I face.

Thoughts Through Design

Designing is something I have always enjoyed. Usually, designing something to get a certain point across comes easily to me. For my commonplace book, I choose a clean and organized look. I really like how user-friendly it is for my audience. The colors I choose are bright but not too bright they take away from my writing plus they’re my favorite colors. I also think this shows my organized nature and displays my personality.

See it Through My Point of View

Composing through images can be a bit more difficult than words simply because it is easier to type a word then find a picture that says exactly what you want it to. Although, when you do find a picture that depicts exactly what you are trying to say I think that pictures can speak louder than words. For myself, using images wasn’t hard to portray my argument because I enjoy design and layouts and figuring out what works best to show the audience what you want to illustrate to them. Personally, I think writing the paper with words was more difficult than with pictures. A weakness I have is organizing my thoughts with words in a way that it makes sense. However, with the images organization and the design, I would say were my stronger points. My favorite image would be the illustration of a child with A.D.H.D stamped on his head. This image physically shows children being labeled ADHD which depicts my whole paper topic. In contrast, my least favorite picture would be the children at the computers with headphones on. The reason for this is because I had trouble depicting what the diagnosis looking like without getting the audience confused by it looking like an adult is helping the child.

When it comes to designing visuals I have had a good bit of practice because I was the design editor of my high school yearbook for two years. For me, all parts of the design work were enjoyable for me since it let me think creatively and show a paper without having to type out the actual words.  For this project, I just about knew exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to portray my essay with images. Although, One thing I did not anticipate was not continuing the design of the black dotted line through the whole powerpoint but eventually I didn’t need to use it for the message to the audience. The black line also was my favorite design choice because it subtly gave a message to the audience as well as the pictures. On the other hand, the least favorite design element I used would be the background color. I feel like I could have changed the color some more to set the tone of the slides but I wasn’t sure what colors to do and how to do them.

The advantage of already having the written paper was that I already had the arguments, the layout, and organization from the paragraphs to where I just had to find pictures that matched each one. I prefer the Image essay over the written one. This is because I found it easier to say my opinions through the depiction of pictures and the layout of pictures came easier to me than the layout of the words. I think both print and images are important to this argument ,however, Images I believe tell a better and more powerful story. When a viewer is looking at pictures they can be connected at a higher level than with words. Sometimes words can be misread or misunderstood to where the intended message can be lost.

 

Be Kind to Others

This week I read an article in the Daily Mississippian about the alleged complaints made towards the Sigma Chi fraternity here at Ole Miss. The article was about Derby Days which is a philanthropy event the fraternity hosts to raise money. One of the events is a dance competition that each sorority competes in. This year during the question and answer was going on the sigma chi hosts were publicly asking inappropriate questions and are now being investigated for title 9 of the University and sexual harassment. Personally, I do not agree that the chapter should be potentially kicked off campus but more that there be better precautions for next year and the members that were asking the questions be punished.

I also read an article in The New York Times called “Loneliness May Be Bad for Your Heart” it tells the statistical data of coronary heart disease, stroke, and other heart problems that occurred in people based on the study of isolation. The study shows the being alone can actually break your heart. Many people have an increased risk and development of heart problems when they are isolated or have a strong feeling of loneliness. I have always known that human nature calls for us to have the need to be surrounded by others and love. Although, I never quite realized how important it truly is to have people that love and care about you around in your life.

Strengths and Struggles

I really like the pictures I have found so far. The pictures that I have included in my project portray exactly what I want to say. I have yet to have a  hard time getting my message across with just images and not being able to use words in this project. Another thing I like is what I am doing with the slide transition. I have the layout pictured fully in my head and I just have to take the time to add the effects with the powerpoint. Although, one of the struggles that I am coming across is a design element that I have decided to include. I am not sure whether or not the audience will notice and understand what message I am trying to send with the design on the page. I wanted it subtle but effective and I am trying to find a way to make that evident in my project.

3…2…1…Breakdown

One thing I realized during this project is that in every forum there was a writer that discussed the topic in a racial view. Another interesting thing that stood out to me was how high the statistical numbers actually are for children being diagnosed with A.D.H.D. Also, the writing strategies we went over in class gave me a new way of how to approach an argumentative paper.

After completing this writing assignment I still have two questions . One was why does the writer that takes a racial discrimination stance on the topic think that teachers would purposely turn their back on a child solely because they are not white. In addition, another question that I had was whether or not I should have used one of the writers that shared an a like view with myself to support my paper even further.

I stand by my opinion that people in today’s society have creative a reliance on A.D.H.D medication to almost put a band aid on the problem of this disorder rather than working with the children who truly suffer.

 

What Timed Writing did for Me

Before our timed writing assignment, I was all over the place and didn’t quite know where to start my writing. However, once under the pressure of time, I felt that I was able to focus in and give a clearer outlook of my thought within my writing. Something that I need to spend more time on with the writing process is the draft. I typically write my draft the night before it is due which I’ve realized isn’t the best way to go about it. This is because the draft is you basis and structure for your whole writing and without having a solid draft to work with. However, the part of the writing process that works best for me is my outlines. When I have created a well drawn out the outline I am able to organize my thoughts, arguments, and topics that I want to include in my writing. One thing I want to improve would be the amount of time I take to edit papers for the final draft. Sometimes I get in the habit of not wanting to read over my writing because I am the one who wrote it and I already know what it says. never the less, rereading your paper is crucial to having a good paper without missing words or too many words.

Biggest Problem with Argumentative Writing

My biggest struggle within this paper will be structuring and finding reliable sources that back up my thesis. I have ideas of how to approach the argument but I will need to find sources that will specifically back what I am trying to say. So far I have been able to look into the advanced search in the library sources. I have found a copious amount of articles that discuss my specific argument points, however not all of them are reliable and I am going to have to really pay attention to what is and isn’t a good source. Sometimes it is really easy to just google the topic of choice but I am going to try to stay within the library search engine, that way I know that it will be a good source and I will meet the requirements of using, at least, three sources from the library search engines.

Thoughts on the Argument Paper

I feel like I will be able to incorporate other outside sources and correctly put them into my writing. I am worried about finding good relevant counter-arguments that will help back up my personal argument. My idea I think is close to another writer in the forum or at least, has some alike ideas and I am curious to see if I can compare and contrast to make my argument stronger. One other thing that I am unsure about is that which arguments to use that are counter to mine because the other writers do have necessarily opposing ideas but more of different approaches. I am also worried about how I will set up my paper and where to place which paragraph.

Taking a Different Approach

While researching and reading through The New York Times it is so fascinating to see how many different points a view that can come from one topic. Before discovering the “Up for Debate” column in the NYT I never thought of all the many ways to look at one argument. For example, I am researching the diagnosis of A.D.H.D on children and the stances range from too quick to diagnose to white children are more likely to be diagnosed than black children. It is interesting to read the views and see how they connect and contrast between each other.

Another impactful thing I read this week was an easter card from my mom. Her words of love, prayer, and strength are helping me get through my busy week of tests and work. Her card came unexpectedly but at a perfect time as most things like that so often do. Reading her easter card reminds me of how blessed we are to be able to do what we can today. Also, that every day is a gift and that we should take advantage of each day living it to the fullest.

 

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