Blog Post #5

jjaganat
Sep 29, 2016
3 min read

After being in this class for six weeks, I believe that I have grasped or improved on a few of the 10 Key Concepts. I believe that I have become much better at “incorporating appropriate and helpful quotations into [my] writing”, increasing my “knowledge of conventions”, and deepening my “inquiry and curiosity” for my interests.

Incorporating Appropriate and Helpful Annotations into my Writing

“Incorporating appropriate and helpful annotations into [my] writing” has definitely become one of my strong suits. I always use annotations in my Reader Response Letters in order to connect with the text. My first RRL begins with a quote from the reading: “Out of all the student testimonials from this reading, one quote really stuck out to me: “I have to write about topics of known interest to me because, if I’m not interested in the topic, my paper usually isn’t my best work.”” I used this annotation to kick off an anecdote about how my former love for writing had been ruined by the monotony and standardization of high school essays.

Before this class, I would never quote unless I needed to for a research paper, but the ability to quote well (which I never realized I had) has expanded my writing from words to stories. I expanded this ability even further with the conclusion of my second RRL: “Antinarella poses a question towards the end of the chapter: “Does faithful accuracy matter in this personal essay, or is it more important to share a personal perception of the memory of a person and an experience?”” In this case, I used a quote to wrap up my RRL about not being given enough tools to move past a “transitional essay” structure while writing for school.

I think improving my ability to quote well has also helped me “make connections” in my writing. Although that Key Concept needs more work, I believe I’m off to a great start.

Knowledge of Conventions

My “knowledge of conventions” has always been strong, but I believe that I have made it even stronger. The sentence and paragraph structure of my RRLs and my essays vary greatly, keeping the reader intrigued and interested. I rarely find run-ons or unfinished sentences in my writing, and always adhere to what’s expected of my paper: Times New Roman, 12 pt., double-spaced. I believe that this makes it easier for anyone to read and understand my writing, instead of getting distracted by big letters or flashy colors. My blog posts used to be big blocks of texts, but starting with Blog Post #3, I have begun adding subtitles to separate the different areas.

However, although this is the case with papers we turn into class, many of the other assignments we have had in class allow for multi-modality. For example, the first part of my multi-genre project absolutely demanded a focus on multi-modality. To assemble my flowchart, I had to keep my audience interested and and make choices to which that they would respond positively. I appealed to the visual mode of communication by using the color purple (representing royalty) and the linguistic mode of communication by using quotes from Disney movies.

Inquiry and Curiosity

I started expanding my “inquiry and curiosity” with my first RRL: “Is there ever a point when we stop affecting society? What about when our voices are too quiet to be heard? Are marginalized individuals reconstructing society if there aren’t enough people listening to them? Or does it just not matter, as long as they affect one person?”. I was so intrigued by the reading that the questions just flowed out of me. This new habit has helped me expand my Inquiry Question far beyond its origins. I am now asking a multitude of questions, and I hope to discover a multitude of answers.

Room for Improvement

Even though I have improved on the three concepts listed above, I feel as though I need much more work with “stretching [my] comfort zone”. I tend to write in a very loose and flowy manner and even though I know I will never give it up, I have to work on hitting the assignment’s purpose, rather than skirting around it. My biggest worry is that I will somehow complete an assignment and do it all wrong. In order to focus my writing and gain more confidence, I can read well-written essays and practice writing in a straightforward manner at first, adding filler later.

Song of the Day