Grow Up!
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Tag Archives: fear
A Raw Reflection on My College Experience
The commonplace blog is a raw representation of how my learning has improved during this first semester. It showcases my weaknesses and strengths. I really enjoyed doing the reflections, because I realized what I could have done different in my papers. I hate not realizing it before, but I know how to make my papers better the next time. The one thing that is discussed most in my commonplace blog is my writing. After being in this class for one semester, I am more confident in my writing. I do not feel like I am an awful writer anymore. Even though some of my papers have not been amazing, knowing that I did my best is one of the greatest rewards. Besides my new found confidence in writing, the commonplace blog tells of my new found love for sociology. I did not know much about sociology, but I knew I had to take it. After taking it, I wish I could take it again next semester. Analyzing has become more of a strong suit for me. Analyzing is when someone does a detailed examination of something for discussion or interpretation. I used to hate to analyze, but after being in sociology and writing, it is not bad. It is interesting to look deeper into something to see how I would interpret it. The blog also shows how much I have grown as a writer. Even though I still struggle with redundancy, I am not as bad as I used to be. My writing has also improved by the use of transitions words. I know which transition word to put with each sentence. I also know how to transition from paragraph to paragraph better.
Furthermore, my commonplace blog reflects not only my academic learning, but it also showcases what concepts I have learned. As I said before, analyzing is the biggest concept captured in my blog. Analyzing can still be a struggle sometimes, but I am learning how to do it. My biggest problem with analyzing is knowing if I am actually understanding what I am reading or watching. It is not really the concept that trips me up, but the fear of not knowing if I am doing it right. The second concept captured in my commonplace blog, although not as detailed, is rhetoric. I did not know what rhetoric was until I came to college. When the unfamiliar concept was introduced to me, I panicked. Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively and persuasively which was unknown to me.
One thing that is missing from the blog is a more in depth discussion on rhetoric. Rhetoric was the biggest part of our writing experience this semester. However, I do not feel as though I discussed it thoroughly. I wish I would have had a more in depth discussion on how much I learned about rhetoric. Now that I understand what rhetoric means, it is not a bad concept.
The five final tags in the commonplace book are a true representation of my current understanding of what it means for me to be a college-educated person. The first two tags go hand-in-hand with insight. The first is “thorough.” This tag means asking questions to make sure that you understand what you are doing; being thorough in every part of the assignment; doing the research required; and making sure everything is organized correctly. The second tag related to insight is “depth.” This tag represents digging deeper into subjects through analysis and interpretation. Analyzing allows for more information, because of the in depth research on the topic. Interpretation allows for me to discover new ways to look at the topic. The next two tags express my emotion during my writing process. The tag “fear” is the emotion that troubles me the most. The fear of the unknown, meaning what did I receive on that paper or is the audience going to understand what I am trying to convey. The fear of failing because of the unknown, and the fear of inexperience on a concept I have never heard of before are also troubling. In the midst of “fear,” which leads into my fourth tag, I do receive some “confidence.” Throughout my last two years of high school, my teacher told me that I was not a very good writer which made my confidence level decline. After having a college professor tell me that I am a pretty decent writer, my confidence elevated. Confidence is something that I know I will continue to struggle with when it comes to writing. The peer reviews were nerve wrecking at first, but I have really grown to like them. Going to the conferences have helped the most, because there is no sugar coating on how my paper is. My final tag is “perfection.” This tag is a true representation of who I am. It represents my need to be perfect in everything I do which happens rarely. I will always make careless mistakes which might lead to fear, but that is the beauty of college. College is the place to grow and find out who I am as a person. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that I will continue to be perfectly imperfect.
New Medium
When we first started working on this project, I thought it was going to be fun. Once I started to use powtoons, I thought, “Oh my goodness! I have no idea what I am doing!!!” I honestly wanted to kill powtoons and throw my computer against the wall. Not only did I not know how to work the visuals, but I hated the way I sounded on my voiceover. I went to my professor, Mrs. Forgette, and she told me that my voiceover was better than the paper I had written, and that it was artful. I felt like I could actually do this project now. She also showed me how to work the visuals which help the process a whole lot. My peer reviews also helped me. They all told me that my visuals were good which also made me feel good, because at one time I felt like my visuals were cheesy and childish. I am thankful for the feedback that I have received and hope that I follow all of it.
Reflection on Arguing
One thing that I learned while researching physician-assisted suicide is that a lot of people have different opinions. Some see it as an act of compassion or as a way to end a difficult situation due to disease while others see it as devaluing and selfish. I have always seen physician-assisted suicide as selfish and devaluing, and it really surprised me to see that other people saw it that way too. I expected more people to view physician-assisted suicide as a means of ending the suffering of the ones with the disease. I also learned new ways to look at physician-assisted suicide from the other forum writers. For example, Ira Byock said that society should discourage physician-assisted suicide not encourage it, and that there are cures being discovered everyday so that it is not needed. I had always seen the cures perspective, but I had never thought about society encouraging it. I do not really feel like society encourages physician-assisted suicide, but I do believe that society urges people to give up when things become rough which is what I believe physician-assisted suicide does. I also learned that I have a decent writing strategy. I love to organize my thoughts first before jumping into the paper. When I just jump in, it is a mess. I like to write down all of my information first to make sure that I have enough, and then I try to go back and use what is necessary.
One of the two questions that I have after composing this project is how do you know if you refuted something or someone correctly. I was struggling with that in the paper. I was not sure if I refuted the topic or the two debaters of the forum correctly. I feel like I did by using facts to prove why physician-assisted suicide should not be legal, but I am very skeptical. The other question I have is how do you know if your writing strategies are working and also which ones are best for what paper. I feel like mine work most of the time, but I really struggled with using my writing strategies for this paper. At first, I felt like my paper was a complete mess. Everything that I normally do for a paper seemed to not work at all. I tried to organize my thoughts correctly and then start, but that did not seem to work. The only writing strategy I used was getting all the information and writing it down. The reason why this paper was such a struggle for me was, because at the start of the paper, I had a lot going on. I was sick with an upper respiratory infection, and I had a sociology exam to study for. Being sick, trying to study for an exam, and starting a paper were not a good mix.
One opinion that I have after completing this project is that I stress out having to write papers when I am sick or studying for another class. This was the most difficult paper that I have had to do in college, because of all the things that I was going through that week. However, I was able to complete every assignment and felt good about my accomplishments.
Racism: Should it be discussed?
In this scene, this lady is saying that she may be racist, but hopes she is not. This scene influenced my paper; because my paper was about if white people should be able to talk about race. She made it very clear that she did not like to talk about race. Even though she veered off of the subject of if white people should be able to talk about race, the point she made about being a racist really stood out in the video. I made a point to put her statement in my paper, because her statement was very honest. Nobody in the video was as honest as her. Her stating that maybe she is a racist resonated with me, because I wonder how many people would actually say that? Many people claim to not be racist and are truly racist at heart, which makes them a hypocrite. Some are racist and boast about it. There are also many people who truly are not racist and have never considered the possibility of being racist. Being racist is never ok, and no one should ever be or want to be racist, but until this world is gone, there will always be racist people. I really hope more people watch this video, especially her part, and do some soul searching about any racism they may be holding on to.
My conferences with my teacher always help me. I figure out if I am doing it right, if it is completely messed up, or if I just need to completely start over. I went to meet my teacher about my paper before the day of the conference and the day of the conference. The day before was probably the most helpful, because that day really helped me reorganize my paper. I had all the content, but it was all over the place. She told me that I needed to abandon the thesis I was going with at first, because I was not really talking about that thesis in my paper. When we finally realized what I was trying to convey in my paper, the paper was able to flow a whole lot better. We reorganized my paper to fit the new thesis, and it sounded like what I was trying to convey in the paper. After we finished the thesis, we decided that I needed to break my paper down a little bit more. We added another paragraph, and again, my paper flowed. When we met the second time, my paper flowed well, I had incorporated all of her suggestions in my paper, and I felt very confident when I submitted my final copy.
This image represents my thesis, because my whole paper is about white and black people. In my thesis, I talk about how white people do not like to discuss race, because they do not want to labeled as racist. They also do not want to offend anybody. This picture shows how there will always be a difference between the color of our skin. When I first started to do my thesis, I was trying to go with pathos, ethos, and logos, but that was not really working well. I made it more simple by writing about how the authors used visual style and editing to get their point across. Writing my thesis in this way helped me get my point across in an efficient way.
#notthatbad
I would use the hashtag “not that bad”, because it really has not been as bad as I thought it would be. Analyzing has always been a little hard for me to follow but being in college has really changed that. When we first started doing analysis in this class I thought, “Oh, Lord!!! What in the world are we talking about?” I have never had to analyze when it came to writing so this was unfamiliar territory for me. As we started to talk about analysis more throughout the week, the concept became less fuzzy. I started to understand different ways to look at things. It was actually really interesting to look at one image and think of the different aspects of that image. Not only has it taught me to look at writing in a different way but all of my classes and even things in my life. I am not as afraid of analyzing as I was at first. All in all, analyzing is not that bad.
Collaborative Thinking
I am on the fence when it comes to working with other people. I like it, because it gives people a chance to bounce ideas off of each other. It also may clarify something that someone might be struggling with. I do not like it, because sometimes people do not like to give their all in a group effort. They try to pick the smartest one out of the group and make them do all the work. Collaborative thinking and writing can be a good when everyone does what they are suppose to do.
Literacy Guide Reflection
The five words that I would use to describe my literacy guide are interesting, insightful, easy, difficult, and frightening. It is interesting, because it shows a variety of topics and shows how others think about things that they might be interested in. The writing style and pictures the authors used were sometimes funny and sarcastic. The comments range from positive to negative and are at times funny, sarcastic, hurtful, and truthful. I would say that my guide is insightful, because it gives people who might be struggling with finding stories on the New York Times help. I was having trouble finding stories that interested me until I looked at the “most popular” section. I chose the word “easy,” because I believe that my guide will be easy to follow. I don’t use elevated vocabulary except for when quoting what someone else said. I divided the sections up nicely, tried to make each flow smoothly, and tried to follow the same technique throughout the entire paper. The literacy guide was difficult. I started with this one topic, and it wasn’t working out too well. Therefore, I had to start over which put me a day behind and was extremely stressful. Lastly, I would use the word “frightening” to describe my guide, because I am afraid at how I did on the guide. I know I tried my best, but I still want to make an excellent grade on the paper. I was so afraid at how I had done on the guide, that I was afraid to submit it. My mom had to calm me down before I could submit the paper. Even though I had mixed emotions on this guide, I really believe that I did well, because I gave it my all.
The article that I enjoyed working the most with was Steve Rannazzisi, Comedian Who Told of 9/11 Escape, Admits He Lied. September 11, 2001 is a very sensitive subject for some people, and Rannazzisi’s lying made the day worse. At the time of the attack, he was a new comedian who wanted some attention. He received the attention but in the wrong way. His lie cost him his contract with Buffalo Wild Wings and fans. Some fans were on his side and others were not. Some thought he should have been pulled off of the air on the network Comedy Central, while others thought he should be forgiven. His co-star said that he was a good guy but just did a dumb thing. I don’t think he should have lied, but I do give him points for manning up and apologizing.
The advice that I would give myself for the next writing situation that I am in is to go with my first choice. Not going with my first choice on the guide put me really behind. It was also very difficult to do the assignment with the choice I thought I was going to do. When I finally decided to go with my first choice, I was at peace. The first choice was easier and not as stressful. Next time I will know to not second guess myself, hopefully.
Biggest Fear
My biggest fear in writing this paper is not being able to organize the paper. I am afraid that I will accidentally leave out one of the things I must have. I feel like I have all this information in my brain, but it is not coming out right. I really want to do well on this paper, and not knowing exactly where I want to go is frightening.
Unit Reflection
My first in-class essay taught me a lot about time management and how not successful I had been with it in the past. While in high school, I had a little experience with timed writing and answering essay questions, but some of the teachers would be a little lenient and still give extra time. Now, with me being in college, I see how serious it is to finish in a timely manner. What I took from this unit is to pay more attention to my time but not too much that I get distracted from the assignment. I also learned that I should try to answer all of the questions quickly, but not so fast that I forget where I am or what I am answering. My best strategy for timed writing would have to be to not stress out about being timed. My problem was that I always use to stress out when I was being timed. This hurt me because that was all I could think about. I would be so focused on completing the assignment in time that I would actually not finish in time. I applied this time management strategy by only looking at the time three times. I looked when I first started, the halfway mark, and when there was five minutes left in class. This strategy was very successful for me. I was able to do everything that was required of me and feel confident in what I wrote. The strategies I used to understand the questions were going back and looking at the questions that my teacher had given me. I also looked over my notes. I tried to make sense of what the question was asking and went from there. Once I understood, I was able to see where I wanted to go. These strategies proved very successful, and I will continue to use these strategies as long as I have in-class essays.
The reason why I chose the question that I wrote about was because that part of the book spoke to me the most. I am very confident in my decision of that question, because Robert Khayat’s persistence reminded me of my persistence. I am most confident in my in-class essay, because I feel like I knew the point I touched on. I am least confident about if I answered the question too thoroughly, because I have been told that I can be very wordy. My strategies for reading Education of a Lifetime were getting done in time and making sure that I understood what was going on. I believe that I was very successful in doing so because like I said before, I actually understood what was going on. I was thoroughly surprised at how well I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read and very informative. This book also taught me a lot. I learned a lot about the history of the University of Mississippi and how much has changed for the better. I also learned from Khayat to stand up for what you believe in no matter who stands against you. The advice that I would give my future self is to read the question thoroughly, know what is going on, relax, and try to answer the questions to the best of my ability.