I can clearly remember logging into Blackboard and the blog for the first time back in August and panicking because I absolutely no idea how I would figure out how to do college online and almost 3 hours away from campus. I took notes over the podcast for the first blogpost like it was the biggest assignment of the semester. Since August, I have seen some growth in this aspect of school- I am a little more confident with my technology abilities. I guess that’s not the best thing to say when taking 5 online classes, but there’s got to be a first time for everything.
Looking back on my first blog post, I almost want to cringe at my writing. I can’t hear my tone or my voice in it at all. I used to rewrite everything I worked on to make it perfect, and in doing so, I would lose my voice in my writing. Your voice is important to your writing because it makes it authentic. There is a difference between tone/ voice and bias, and it can sometimes be a fine line. In some of my other writing, I had to work to not have a strong tone in papers or blog posts to make sure that my content stayed unbiased.
The assignment, “Letter to My Selfie”, is something I posted and have not looked back on at all throughout the semester. The biggest thing I noticed when I reread it today was that I accomplished my goal. I am so much more confident in myself, both as a writer and a person. I didn’t really think that I would see change like this in just one semester, but it is great to see such a difference in my writing in that way.
Rhetoric is something I did a lot of studying on in my last English class. Every paper was an analysis of the use of rhetoric in articles or other papers. It is a powerful tool when used well and it can help sway opinions when writing an argumentative paper. I personally think the most important tool of rhetoric is logos. It is unbiased and well informed, which is crucial to making a good argument or simply just stating facts.
My use of logos has improved if I may say so myself. In the past, I have usually relied on pasting quotes into my paper to support my ideas. This semester, however, I have really pushed myself to use logos in different ways. I paraphrased more and took more time putting an author’s ideas into my own words, like in my reading journal for Donald Murray. I tend to overdo the pathos sometimes in my writing. I have really worked to use pathos in a more effective way this semester, and I think I have done a good job of doing so. In my #1000BlackGirlBooks, I used pathos in creating my blog post, but kept it at a professional level. Ethos is something that used to confuse me a little bit, until I broke it down to what it really is: the ethical appeal of the author. Ethos is something that takes time to really develop as a writer. The best thing I can do to develop ethos for myself would be to stay informed and unbiased in what I write. One way to do this would be to choose reliable sources that are also good ethos.
The article we read at the very beginning of the course “Sponsors of Literacy” defined a lot of my mental debate throughout the semester. I understand so much and have grown so much as a writer because of my sponsor. My mother is the reason I have the passion to be better at everything. But it got me thinking more, is there another sponsor that I have that I am not thinking about as much? I would say my imagination would honestly be a sponsor of literacy for me in a way. I used to write so much when I was younger, fantasy stories in my head or inspired by a movie or another book I liked. The biggest thing I took away from this was that sponsors of literacy can come from anywhere.
Another blog post that I remember finding funny, especially after I realized I did it wrong, was the 24-hour writing log. I misunderstood what it meant and wrote a log of my entire day, which was not what I was supposed to do. Once I corrected my mistake everything was fine, but it made me reflect a little on the way I communicate. In almost every media post or conversation, I use emojis. My family makes fun of my overusage of laughing faces, sarcastic smiles, and the clown emoji, but I think it is just another way to communicate better. If I put the sparkle emoji around a word or a group of words, I can convey that I am being sarcastic in a text message or Twitter post. It helps me eliminate part of the communication barrier that a screen creates.
Fast forward a few weeks to the blog post about What the Eyes Don’t See. I can see even in a month a huge boost in confidence in my blog posts. It takes me much less time to write them and feel comfortable with what I am creating. I don’t usually like to go back and reread old things of mine, especially middle school (we don’t talk about her). I took time to reread all my blog posts and papers from the semester and starting with this unit right here is where I saw the most change.
I looked back at my progress logs as well throughout this reflection process. On my first blog posts and paper, I spent so much time working on drafts. I would spend around an hour or more at a time working on a rough draft or write a blog post over the course of two or three sittings. As the semester progressed, my time spent on my work decreased. My effort on the assignments didn’t decrease, just my time spent tweaking and perfecting for no reason did. The numbers helped me see this change in myself much more than just reading.
I think the work that shows my growth as a writer best is major paper 3. This paper was an intense one. My initial plan for it was changed last minute and I knew that it was something that I couldn’t, for lack of better term, haphazardly assemble. This was an important topic to me, and I couldn’t just write to barely fulfill the assignment. I spent only 2 days on that paper, and it is one of the best things I have written. I worked really hard to make sure that I stayed unbiased while still providing a well-researched and strong argument.
This first semester of college has shaped me in so many different ways. At the beginning, I was dreading another English class because my last one was a little rough at the end. Once I got over my initial pre-school panic, I really got into the groove of this class and let it take me on the journey it did. I think I have greatly improved as a writer, not in the sense of better skills (even though I have gotten better at some skills for sure), but more in the sense of being a writer. Like in my last blog post, being a writer is more than just writing words on a page. It is speaking from the mind and soul, in a way that leaves an impact on a reader.
| duration | date | session | reading/writing | start time | engagement | location | mood | music | week of term |
| 2 hours (well 2 one-hour sittings) | 11/16/2020 | Writing the whole paper | writing | 11 am
And 1045 pm |
4 | My bathroom floor | Nervous bc I may have covid | Mario cart music | 13 |