Category Archives: Weekly Reflections

Unit Reflections, Weekly Reflections

Commonplace Blog Reflection

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Using a blog as a reflective tool for my writing class was very effective. The blog offers a space where I can go to write my thoughts and reflections about the assignments given to us in Writing 101. It also gives me a space where I can collect and organize my writing process, as well as who I am as a writer. Keeping a blog for the entire semester has given me something that I can use to reflect upon my own learning. I will be able to learn from this blog not only now, but any time I choose to go back and look at my writing. It is fascinating to see my growth as a writer in such a short amount of time. Although the quality of my blog may not be top-of-the-line, it does do great job of explaining what all I went through and what all I learned about this semester.

Keeping a blog for this semester made me an exponentially better writer. We were given quite a few assignments that instructed us to go find a piece of writing and analyze it. On the surface, this may seem simple. However, I came to find out that there was much more beneath the surface of writing than I had previously thought. Knowing about your audience is one of the strongest tools available in writing. Being able to shape and mold a piece of writing so that it better reaches an audience will improve one’s writing extremely. When writing reaches the intended audience, the readers are able to clearly read exactly what point the author is trying to make. Keeping in mind the intended audience while writing my blog helped to reinforce the idea that all of my writings should have a target audience, and they should all address said audience appropriately.  I plan to use this concept of intended audience to strengthen all of my writings.
Another important benefit I gained by keeping a blog was the ability to read more effectively. Now that I have a clearer understanding about why authors make the choices they do, I am better able to decipher what the authors main point is. This allows me to “trim the fat” off of any piece of writing and study the main points. I feel that this makes me not only a better reader, but also someone who can learn easier. Now that I understand how to look for and identify a writer’s (or speaker’s) purpose, I am better able to respond in a manner that is beneficial. I plan to use this skill not only when I write and when I read, but also when I speak to people. The ability to identify an intended purpose or main idea will be extremely helpful in all of my future writings and readings.

I feel that the area I grew the most in by keeping this blog was my ability to critically think. I feel that keeping a blog helped me to organize my thoughts and to become a clearer writer. Throughout my blog, I analyze many different articles from the NY Times. This analysis helped my critical thinking skills immensely. Because of keeping my blog, I now feel that I am a much stronger thinker as well as a much stronger do-er.

One thing I wish I had more of in my blog is personal reflections that have nothing to do with academia. I wish I had taken the time to write more about my every-day life. It would be very beneficial for me to be able to look back at some of the struggles I was facing in my personal life and see how I grew from them and how I overcame them. I also think it would be a fun way to look back and reflect upon my life a few years from now.

In my blog, I mention a lot about tools to strengthen your writing. I like to imagine that people as writers have a sort of “tool belt.” This tool belt is filled with all the different strategies and techniques one can use in his or her writing to make it more effective. One example would be the use of ethos, logos, and pathos. Using these three different tools can do a lot to strengthen or shape one’s writing. Pathos is used to draw out an emotional response from your audience. This will cause the reader to connect the emotion with the writing in his or her brain. This causes one’s writing to be memorable and impactful. Ethos can be used to strengthen the credibility of one’s writing. By making statements or by drawing upon credible sources, one makes his or her writing much more credible and reliable. Logos can be used to add details and statistics to your writing. When invoking the use of logos, a writer can effectively describe situations more clearly because of the use of data and statistics. Using logos will also help to strengthen the credibility of one’s writing, because well-organized facts and data help to add to the overall credibility of the argument.

After careful revising and completion, I have added tags to my blog. Tags are short words or phrases that are used to sum up or categorize my posts. For example, one of my tags is “Purpose.” If you click on a post with the Purpose tag, it will take you to all of my other posts that are related to purpose.  The tags that I have chosen to organize my posts, as well as the blog posts that I created are a representation of my understanding of what it means to be an educated person.

Other Writing, Unit Reflections, Weekly Reflections

Gallery Walk Reflection

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I enjoyed participating in the gallery walk. We walked around the class room and inspected each others websites and answered questions about the websites. I enjoyed this because seeing other people’s websites because it gave me new ideas to use for my website. The questions people answered about my website will also help me to improve my website. This exercise helped make my website better.

Other Writing, Weekly Reflections

Connecting Your “Real Life” to Writing

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During this spring break,  I spent most of my time resting and relaxing, as most students do. I did, however, find time to think about the wonderful world of Writing 101 and the glorious tool that is rhetoric. I began reading a book titled A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin. The book is a fiction novel, but it is filled with brilliant writing. Martin’s style and word choice create an extremely gorgeous style. His language choice helps to create different tones and moods that make me as a reader feel as if I’m a part of the story. He does an amazing job of describing places, weather, people, and the actions people make. His writing paints a picture so easily it makes it difficult to put down the book. The things we’ve been learning in Writ101 have helped me to better recognize and appreciate the tools Martin uses to create such a wonderful story.

Other Writing, Weekly Reflections

Connecting the NYT to My Education

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Have We Been Playing Gershwin Wrong for 70 Years?

Earlier this week in my Music classes we talked about the significance of George Gershwin and his compositions. Gershwin is seen as one of the most influential early American composers. His jazzy, lyrical works have been cemented in American musical culture for the past 70 years. This article talks about how in one of Gershwin’s most famous works, “An American in Paris,” the composer calls for a “french taxi horn” part. This is obviously not a standard musical instrument used in classical music. The article claims that for the past 70 years, performers have been using notes that are incorrect to what Gershwin would have actually intended. This article is connected to my studies as a music major because it shows that we are still learning and discovering new things about music. This suggests to me that my education at Ole Miss is important because soon it will be my responsibility as well as my peer’s to continue the study of music. We will be responsible for interpreting new meanings behind music, as well as continuing to teach about the culture provided by modern American music.

Other Writing, Weekly Reflections

Relating the New with the Old

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This week in WRIT 101 we learned about rhetorical strategies in writing. We learned about the benefits of using ethos, logos, and pathos in order to help your writing better influence your readers. It is memorable because it is something useful in all styles of writing, as well as being an important skill. Last week we talked about the importance of understanding your target audience. I think knowing your target audience will greatly influence what kind of rhetorical strategies you will use in your writing. This connection made me realize that it is important to use techniques that are effective in influencing and moving your target audience.

Weekly Reflections

Learning About Writing (Feb. 8-12)

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This week in WRIT101 we talked about the benefits of using transitional words or phrases. I found this lessons to be particularlly helpful because it will help to strengthen my writing and help make my writing more effective to my audience. I plan to use the information I learned about transition phrases in all of my academic writings. Learning about transitional words and phrases affected my writing positively by helping me to make my writing more effective. I am excited to be able to use this technique in all of my future writings.

Other Writing, Weekly Reflections

Writing About My Writing

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I think of myself as a writer. I think all people are writers in their own way. We all write in various forms everyday when we text, email, or communicate with other people. As a college student I am fortunate enough to be able to write both formally and informally. When I text my friends or share a post on Facebook, my tone is extremely informal and lackadaisical  because my intended audience isn’t one that cares so much about my writing having a proper style. However, when I write a paper for class or send an important e-mail, I am sure to structure my writing in a way that clearly states my thoughts and ideas and emulates a form that represents a serious tone. My favorite form of writing is formal essays for class. Maybe it’s narcissistic of me, but I enjoy writing in a way that makes me feel educated. I feel like it causes people to take you more seriously when you can write in a manner that reflects your intelligence.

Weekly Reflections

First Friday Reflection: Jan. 29 2016

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This week in WRIT101 we talked about the importance of recognizing who your audience is and what your purpose is when writing. I learned how recognizing who your audience is and creating a “profile” of them in your mind will help your audience receive and understand your writing better. This is memorable because I believe it is an important aspect of writing. It will also help my audience to better understand my writing. I believe this concept will be useful in the future because I will continue writing different things for the rest of my life, whether it be for a class, a job, or any other purpose. I believe this could be immensely helpful in other classes, especially those in which I will be writing a lot because it will help my writing to be clearer and more effective.