Mistakes This Semester

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This semester I have made several mistakes in writing as well as in other classes. In writing, I found that I procrastinated the drafting stages of my paper. Therefore, I had more work through the revising and editing stages of my papers. I have tried to space out my writing which has helped a lot on the current assignment. In addition to this, I have realized that I procrastinate in other classes. For example, I didn’t make the grades I wanted to on my tests because I only studied for tests the night before. I learned that if I study in small amounts over a week before the test, my score increases. Overall, I have learned many valuable lessons from the mistakes I have made this semester.


Op- Doc Analysis Unit Reflection

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Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 10.11.56 AMThis picture represents the scene where his parents receive the phone call from the school saying that his son was being suspended for hitting another child then lying about it. In reality, he never hit the boy and the school failed to research into the report more. They assumed that because the confrontation happened between both white and African American boys, Idris had done it. The reason I think this scene had the largest impact on my paper is because it was the first time the viewer understood in reality what his personal struggles were. At this point in the story the viewer is able to see a specific example and better understand the purpose of this video. I was able to really expand on this particular example in my analysis because it was the first time I personally experienced emotion by the film. When watching the video for the first time, this was the scene that caught my attention and helped me decide how to analysis the rest of the film. Overall, I felt this initial scene that depicts his personal struggled helped me put into perspective the rest of my analysis.

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I feel this picture best describes the activity that helped me the most in writing my paper. During my conference, I had good body paragraphs but failed to have a clear and organized introduction, thesis and conclusion. When we discussed that I could rearrange the last part of my thesis into the conclusion, I was able to clarify my purpose of the introduction.  When I left the conference, I moved the “so what” piece of my thesis into the topic sentence of the conclusion. In addition, I went back and added a few sentences in my body paragraphs to help build up to my conclusion’s purpose. Another helpful organization tip I gained from my conference was how to show the complexity of my video’s issue. Being too broad about the racial tension in the education system was hindering my flow of the paper. I found myself bouncing back and forth between the different pieces of the complex issue. I was advised in my conference to look at all the issues I discussed in my paper and move them around within the paragraph so the overall message was more concise. This reorganization of my middle paragraphs helped the fluency of my concluding paragraph. In conclusion, I found my conference to be the activity that impacted my final paper.

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The image above really pin points the complex issues that my Op-Doc Video depicts. The image above shows a typical school building but with a large set of diverse kids within it. Generally speaking, the range of ethnicities in the education system is the main topic of both the paper and the video. Where I found the real issues of the racial struggles in the picture was by how the school is being stretched. I thought of this as representing the elements of my thesis that articulate the social issues piling up within the education system. In my thesis I talk about the complexity of race and how it effected Idris over time. When I think of how his life was portrayed in the film, I thought of each struggle as something that was piling up on him and personally affecting him to the point where he may “pop”. In total, I feel the picture above expresses the complexity of my thesis.


Literacy Guide Unit Reflection

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I learned many valuable writing techniques, development skills and analysis strategies through out the literacy guide assignment. I started by organizing my ideas and dividing the “must-haves” into each category. Once that was complete, I was able to refer to the previous homework activities in order to find examples to implement in my guide. For example, I used the three charts as a starting point for exploring The New York Times. The most helpful chart in particular, was where we used the “most popular” page to find three articles. I had a whole section of my guide dedicated to using the “most popular” page as a tool for navigating through the newspaper. I was able to use my previous analysis from the chart to expand on my new thoughts with the examples I used in the guide. This showed me the value of taking a specific idea and elaborating. I feel that analysis has been one of my weaknesses when writing so this technique of using my previous work was extremely valuable. While implementing the analysis to my examples, I realized that I was having a hard time covering all the “must-haves”. I had no problem with hyperlinking articles, clarifying a voice, and analyzing the different styles and preferences. What I did struggle with was finding the different article forms and modes that would cover each of the topics I had assigned to topic prior to writing. I found that I would continue to use news reports and multimedia pieces repetitively. I had to rewrite sections multiple times and spend a lot of time searching for the perfect example in something other than news reports and videos. Like with the “most popular” chart homework, I used my previous work, “One topic three ways”, to get a better idea of the different article types out there. At first this chart was helpful, but then I realized it was still lacking the elements I needed. It is at this point in my writing of the guide, I happened to stumble across the times topic page. During my search for the perfect example, this page within the newspaper was able to have multiple modes of information with a click of a button. This initial frustration led to this new discovery within The New York Times. In reaction to this valuable and helpful tool, I was able to create the last section of my guide. This moment was extremely valuable to me because I was able to learn a valuable organization skill through my own mistakes. Out of the entire project, this was my personal favorite learning moment. I learned an important lesson and was able in return to use it to complete the assignment. With this being said, I believe that my advice to myself from this particular writing task would be don’t be afraid to make mistakes and implement these struggles into a unique way in which can be used to complete the task at hand or in the future. Practice makes perfect and rewriting is not a sign of organizational or developmental weakness.


Daily Write: Writing Weaknesses

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My biggest fear when it comes to writing is the process of forming my ideas into an organized and well explained paper. I have no problem creating the points that I want to cover. My only issue is turning these thoughts into sentences with a balanced amount of analysis. I find myself most of the time giving good examples that cover the topic and main ideas. It is the elaboration and analysis of these examples that I struggle to formulate in my writings. In addition to the lack of explanation, I feel that my papers can be repetitive and inarticulate. In conclusion, I feel I am improving, but I still feel I struggle with the idea of creating an assignment overall.