Revisions #4

I think that my final paper had more concise thoughts. After reading my peers review, I decided to add some more detail and examples. My rough draft had more on my thoughts of my narrative rather than better examples. I wouldn't call my revisions major, but i did make revisions. It had to do more with my content and some focus. I felt my rough draft needed to be expanded, idea-wise. Usually when I do a rough draft, I try not to make a "shitty rough draft". I like to put some effort into it because it allows me to work with my paper better during revisions, rather than scrambling to patch it up. I do think I tend to repeat some words and I try my best to not let that happen. I felt that during the revision process I used my peer reviews suggestion to add some more detail, but I also made changes in what I felt would better word my paper.

• My strongest points, I felt, were my introduction. I tried to lure my reader in by giving an honest, but respectful feelings on what I hated about reading/writing. I also felt that a strong point was some of my usage of descriptions. What I mean is ellaborating on my thoughts.
• My weaker points were giving more concise details. Honestly, I felt that if I gave factual examples from the book that I would be writing a book review and I didn't want to take that route. I wanted to give my feelings and not what occured in the novel.

#3

• A difference between an A or C paper can deal with punctuation and grammar. You can't expect a good grade if the content you place/submit to be graded looks horrible. Plus I feel that this is one of the few things that you can do something about because a thing called spellcheck exists. Too many grammatical errors lead to a lower grade, big surprise. (Not really)

• Your structure is also a big deal because you don't want to have info that's not pertenent to a topic in a paragraph that has nothing to do with it. What I always try to do is make sure the info correlates with the info I put in a certain paragraph. It's also confusing having no structure because you can become easily lost. It makes you look unorganized as well. The way I see it is if you have no structure, then my prof is going to think I did it last minute.

• Also, being able to draw your reader in is important. You got to have a good intro because that's what makes a reader know if they want to continue to read your paper. If its confusing or flat then its going to seem as if your paper isn't interesting because you can't produce a good hook sentence. If you can't provide a good hook then you probably couldn't do some good research to come up with something interesting.

I find that the hardest for me is being able to draw a reader in. You don't want to sound like your trying to hard, but at the same time I want to sound like I put effort into my intro. Usually, I spend the longest time finding a way to word my intro best and the rest of the paragraphs seem easier.

*** I strongly believe that a grade sometimes is determined by the perspective of a teacher. There is a huge difference writing to please certain readers and professors. It can change the way you write because teachers have different styles they like making it harder to write how you usually do.

Blog2

Potential topics that I am considering writing for my narrative are about my 1st time reading J.R.R Tolkien's novels. He basically allowed me to expand my imagination. He has some of the best fantasy novels and allowed me to have a sense of how creative writing is done. Some potential problems I can see is allowing my writing to stay in the border of Tolkien's mind. I may want to mimic his writing, but that's not what I want to do. I rather want to allow my writing become as creative as his. Also, I beleive his writing was the one that introduced me to wanting to pick up other novels/

Another topic that I might consider is how my senior lit teacher in high school didn't allow his class to be an easy A. He made us do many research papers as well as push us into thinking ahead (college & careers) in our lives. He really pushed me my senior year and helped me when I needed help. I think a huge con to this topic is that it's too vague. I feel many kids feel this way about a certain teacher, so it makes this topic less interesting to write about.

Last topic I'm considering is how a journal is/can be beneficial to becoming a more vivd writer. I noticed that the instructors that made me keep a journal made me express my thoughts when no one else listens. I can sit down and write how I feel without having to worry about my structure or grammar. I think a journal let's you be a more freelance writer. Possible negatives include how sometimes I wrote just because it was required and not because I wanted to. Other than that, I really look forward to writing on one of these 3 topics.

=)

Blog1-11

I'm currently taking writing 101 because it's obviously a mandatory course. It’s required by NEIU to help students become more vivid writers. College is about writing papers of great length and this course allows you to develop your skills in so many ways. Whether you want to learn how to write more proper or about things that may interest you, I feel that this course teaches you how to develop many skills that you don’t have yet. What I would like to gain from this course is to be more passionate when it comes to writing. To further explain that, I generally only enjoy writing on topics that are interesting, but at topics that I find dull I just write without any emotion. I guess I kind of want to be able to do better all around than just focus on the topics that are more interesting. I kind of want to minor in Italian and it being a foreign language makes me write down stuff more often. I would like this class to allow me to be more creative in my way of thinking when I write down my thoughts, whether it is Italian or English. Thus I think this is a fair course because of all the positive things it can bring forward to an individual. Plus this class actually teaches you something unlike some courses offered for credits.