Daily Writes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

During the library session, it opened my eyes to a lot of the amazing resources that are available to students at Ole Miss. It was great to know that I can access any of these websites and sources whenever I need them. I had heard about the sources that the library offers but had never known how to navigate through them. At the session, I learned how to access everything and what is the best source for the project that I am working on. Another great thing that I discovered is that there is a librarian for every major. This is a great resource to know about for when I enter more into my major classes.

In grammar and writing, there is always something that someone struggles with. Personally, my most common mistake is not rereading my paper. I always end up convincing myself that since I was the one writing I already know what is on the paper so why reread it. Confession: I typically have someone else do if for me because I can’t get myself to do it. Although, I know my papers need rereading and editing it’s always hard to make myself sit down and do it.

#Goingdeeper

This is the hashtag that I would give to analyze because when you’re analyzing a piece you are going deeper into the meaning and almost  what is “behind the scenes”. When doing an analyze one most find the deeper reason for why the author chose to do something or why they included/didn’t include something. It really makes you think further than summarizing the document.

For the op-doc that I am using”messages and meaning” will be the questions that I focus on the most. This is because my video I have chosen is solely video and no sound it will be important for me to look at the content and techniques that the director uses. Object; diving below the ice has a great visual aspect that I can really pull from to write my analyze. My plan is to pick apart each technique and visual tool she used and how it impacts the way that the audience interrupts and views the film.  Do to the video not having words I plan on using the footage for the content. Also, do to the video being so recent of in being published and made no real context or effects have been made so I plan on trying to find a new twist on that section.

Today in class we had a goal of learning more in depth on how to navigate in The New York Times newspaper. Once breaking off into small groups we discussed each topic, article form, and how we knew it was that form. One of my partners told us about how she was able to find three completely different versions of online news all on the same topic. I found it interesting that she used a frequently asked questions page and that I should look into that about the topic I am considering on researching. Another quality I liked about the way she went about the assignment was that she got her articles from three different categories. The three categories were science, health, and opinion which is a great range of different views on one subject. I want to keep this in mind when I am looking into The New York Times when doing the readers guide on How to stay healthy under the pressure of life. I think today in class with the discussions from what other students found is going to help me greatly when trying to find different sources and articles because I know that I struggled some when working on my own homework.