Tag Archives: COMPOSITION

Dec 4 2015

Learning Through The Eyes Of a College Student

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I feel that my Commonplace blog is a good representation of my academic learning in regards to my writing. Many of the daily post reflect what I have learned from my previous mistakes and their ending result. In addition, I feel that it represents the realization that my writing is improving as the semester continues. To be more specific, my commonplace book shows the improvement in many skills to compose my paper. For example, I had several posts that discussed the importance of having a better structure and the use of examples. These two component were the areas in which I had made a goal to improve by the end of the semester. I think that while I was focusing solely on trying to be better in these areas, I gained some additional knowledge. With this being said, I feel that my commonplace book is mainly about these two topics with small assertions of additional learning moments. Every once and a while there will be a post about the significance of peer review and the different modes of writing accompanied with my personal opinions. I have really relied on the idea of peer review more this semester than I ever had in the past. I found myself learning from others work and their comment on my own work. I believe that the more I had my papers reviewed, the better my grade got. Also, I realized that I had been exposed to several writing modes when trying to better structure and use examples. It is not until now reading through my commonplace book that I truly realized how much learning I have been exposed to.

On the other hand, I feel that my commonplace book doesn’t represent my learning outside of my writing. As a student, I have changed in regards to things academically outside of the writing classroom. For example, I have become a much smarter studier for exams. Instead of studying the night before, I space out my study time. This also links to how I’ve become better with my time management. With joining a sorority and being involved in the Teachers of Tomorrow organization on campus, I have learned the necessity of an organized life.  In addition, I have learned to take advantage of the things on campus that are free and could benefit me in return. More particularly, going to the writing center with my papers has been something that I’ve really valued this semester. I have seen my papers improving in organization after having it reviewed by someone at the writing center. Also, going to the library to study. At the beginning of the semester, I studied in my dorm where there were tons of distractions. By using the library, I am more focused and tend to get things done more efficiently. None of the learning moments discussed above were reflected in my commonplace book. While I feel like it was a good representation of my learning experiences in my writing, I feel it lacked the other areas, subjects and elements of my learning this semester.

My final five tags within my commonplace book highlight my personal experiences and understanding of being a learner in college. The three tags that represent my writing experience is “struggles”, “composition” and “listening”. The tags “struggles” represents the value of learning from my mistakes and there being no shame in starting over or rewriting. In reaction to this, I feel that one of my struggles this semester is composing. The tag “composition” really highlights the many learning moments that focus on building, organizing, and developing ideas into a cohesive paper. Lastly, I feel my “listening” tag really shows how I have valued the thoughts of others. Through out the peer edit comments and use of the writing center, I understand the importance of listening to what others have to say. A part from my learning moments within writing a paper, I have two tags that demonstrate my further learning this semester. The first tag is “different modes”. This tag really explains my experiences where I was open minded, went out of my “comfort zone”, and not being afraid to try something new. The second tag is “analysis” which defines how I have drawn connections between each subject, used examples from my life to relate to topics I have learned, and being able to better explain myself in a more efficient, less repetitive way. Overall, my tags have reflected my learning not only in my writing, but in my general first semester of college.

Nov 19 2015

PowToon Unit Reflection

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While composing my PowToon, I succeeded and was challenged in many aspects. One of these aspects are the sound and images within the PowToon. The first thing I realized was how different composing the cartoon was in comparison to the academic paper. More particularly, there were so many elements that make up a single second in the PowToon. When writing my paper, I had a complete lay out of what was to be said/written for every sentence. With the PowToon, in one second you must think of the timing of the audio, music, visual and what/how the visual would appear. With this being said, I was not the most comfortable with the voice over at first. I felt my voice was too high pitched and too fast. I couldn’t get myself to take the necessary brakes when reading the script. At this point, I decided to record my voice in Garage Band in order to add “fake” pauses. I feel this was a large learning moment for me and one of my strengths. I was able to really problem solve and get creative with each individual slide. I loved creating my academic paper into an entertaining video. At the same time, I feel that initial attempt to record and time the slides with the voice over was my weaknesses. Even though the sound track was not my strength, my favorite part was the clever remarks. I think these remarks really added the personality of my PowToon. On the other hand, my favorite part of the visual track was all the blank slides where I got to really be creative. Overall, I feel I really learned a lot about me as a writer through many different modes.

Prior to this PowToon, I had very little experience in designing a visual presentation. With this being said, many of the designing process was enjoyable and difficult. I really enjoyed creating the blank screens. It felt like it was an empty canvas where I could create whatever I wanted. I was able to choose the colors and the location of each picture as to where with the templet screens I was more limited. In opposition, the hardest part was having the images appear in sync with the sound track. Therefore, there were several decisions that I had to make that I was not initially anticipating. I had drawn out on paper what I originally wanted with the script, but once I got on the website I realized that my character and visual options were limited. I had to rethink several ideas but I believe in the end it worked out for the best. For example, I really wanted to have younger and teenaged students at one point in my slides. The only issue was there wasn’t teenage aged animations in PowToon. On the other hand, I think that my favorite design choice was choosing the classroom theme. It really helped create and further express the topic of my argument. In conclusion, I found that I liked using the electronic environment more than I anticipated.

I believe that remixing my initial paper into a cartoon was both good and bad. For starters, by having a written paper I already had my actual argument planned out for me. The down side to this advantage was that some of the academic evidence that I had used in my paper was harder to express through visuals. Therefore, in reaction, I prefer the essay over the PowToon to express my argument. I think that I liked the essay better for the sole purpose of being able to build strong creditability to my argument. Yes, it was possible to add creditability with the PowToon, but I was able to analyze and expand on my sources more with the written paper. In opposition, I feel that with my topic being standardized testing, taken by children and young adults, the animated visual was more effected in reaching the audience the topic refers to. The students that take these test addressed in my paper, are more inclined to watch a cartoon than read a lengthy essay. In addition, I feel that one of the advantages to using the visual animation was that the words were easier to compose because they were short and more relaxed. On the contrary, I couldn’t use many of the credible quotes from my original paper. At the end of the day, I enjoyed composing the visual medium but I could better explain my argument through the academic paper.

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Nov 4 2015

Argumentative Unit Reflection

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  1. Through out this project, I learned many things about editing, information on my topic and composing an argumentative paper. The most valuable thing that I learned was how to edit my paper in a more efficient and beneficial way. Looking at each sentence and deleting the unnecessary words really helped improve my paper. I feel that I become repetitive and extremely wordy at some points in my paper. I plan to use this technique of editing a sentence one at a time in my future papers. Another learning moment was when reading the other forums in the debate. I tend to be a closed minded thinker on controversial topics I’m passionate about. This paper really forced me to listen and take into account other perspectives and experiences on a particular topic. For example, my topic was based around whether or not standardized testing was a good measurement of our education system. I have always been against testing, but when researching the benefits of these tests for some individuals, I was more open minded. In opposition, some of the arguments proposed further pushed my perspective of the story and helped me expand my original stance on the debate. Lastly, I learned a lot about how to organize and compose an argumentative paper. In the past, I wrote argumentative papers that were scattered and unorganized. I was never aware that there was a certain structure to the paper. I used to think that every paragraph looked at both the positives and negatives of the situation. Therefore, I have never written a rebuttal paragraph. I found that learning the layout of the paper really helped me in developing my thoughts and ideas. Overall, this project was very full of numerous learning opportunities.

 

  1. After completing the paper, I had several questions that remained unanswered. One question is how do I add more personality to my paper? I feel that I make good points supported by effective evidence, but it lacks in voice and personality. When referring back to the example paper on excelsior OWL, I admired the way his paper flowed and was filled with personality. While I feel I am improving on adding voice, I still would like some more tips on how to add voice effectively. In addition to this, I had a question in regards to the topic itself. As a future educator, I want nothing more than to know that my students will be successful in everything they do under my supervision. With this being said, I wonder what will become of standardized testing by the time I become a teacher. Will the government take away some test and add others? Will they get rid of testing all together? Will states continue to add more testing requirements in addition to those of the nation? I understand the point of view of the students because I personally experienced the tests first hand. I am very curious and optimistic about what will happen to my future students and if they will endure the test like me or if they will have new standards.

 

  1. I think my opinion after completing this project is about how important argumentative writing will be in the future. As much as I hate to say it, we will need the knowledge of this particular writing style no matter what profession we chose. In the business world, one may need it with proposing new ideas and changes to major corporations. Educators will need it when fighting for something for their students whether its within their school or district. Lawyers and politicians will constantly be using argumentative writing for various ways of completing their jobs. In conclusion, argumentative writing techniques was a very important and valuable thing to learn for the future.
Oct 2 2015

#UsingExamples

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When reflecting on this past week I was able to work and improve on many skills used to writing a analysis paper. More specifically, I learned the importance of using direct examples from the text to accompany the points of analysis. This allows the reader to not only better understand the actual text but to have a better idea of where my thoughts are coming from. It also improves the credibility of my ideas and interpretations throughout my paper. Overall, the use of the specific and direct examples has improved my writing and enriches the ideas within the paper.

Sep 3 2015

Common Reading Unit Reflection

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Through out this unit, I learned a lot of valuable skills and strategies that will help improve my writing in the future. One of the most important skills I learned was the extreme need to come to class prepared. I had finished the book, The Education of a Lifetime, before the beginning of school which was instrumental through out the entire first unit. I was able to use the homework and class assignments to strengthen my understanding of the book. This in return would help with the very little experience I had with timed writing assignments. I used many new techniques in order to prepare and complete my essay. For example, at my high school we wrote timed essays but we got the prompt the day before and were able to gather our ideas and organize our essay that night. With this writing, I was unable to prepare on the exact prompt but I was able to do some “prep-work” in a similar fashion. I spent the night before the essay gathering evidence and ideas from the previous assignments we had done in class and for homework. I made sure to include a wide variety of examples and multiple ways to use each piece of evidence. With creating different ways to use a single quote, I was able to create a wider range of analysis which could be used for different prompts. With my notes and ideas in hand, I then read each provided prompt. I picked the first prompt because I had the most examples and prior knowledge on that particular question. I felt that having that list prepared prior to class time was significantly helpful. I didn’t have to spend time searching through the book to find the quotes and I was able to chose a prompt quicker and more efficiently. Although this strategy was extremely useful to my writing process, I think creating an outline prior to writing my essay was the most beneficial strategy. I organized the evidence in the order I wanted the paper to flow along with creating a strong thesis. It only took about five minutes to complete and it kept me focused as I wrote my assignment. I felt I had good supporting evidence and my ideas were clear and appropriate for the topic. However, my weakness during the in-class writing essay was forming those ideas into a concise paragraph and fluent essay within the time restraint. I feel I struggle with rambling and re-writing the same idea repetitively. With this being said I also have extreme test anxiety. I found myself getting frustrated and discouraged when I didn’t have the words to articulate a particular idea. In the future, I plan on creating sentences ahead of time to use in my essay. I also will create a time limit per section in order to prevent me from spending all my time on a specific paragraph. Overall I learned many lessons from the mistakes and struggles within this one writing assignment. I hope to use these to improve my timed essays throughout my college experience.