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| Children drawing. "Horses in meadow" 4/7/2015 via torange Attribution 4.0 International License. |
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Draft of Open Letter
This post will primarily serve as a link to my draft of an open letter to my professor and peers. Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped - turned upside-down, I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the writer I am today.
I think my letter is a bit awkward, so I guess the organization is my main concern. Beyond that, as always, I stress it's a rough draft. I'm also not sure if I was too pessimistic or self-critical. I though I did a pretty good job of describing my experience, but if it comes off as focused too much on the negatives, that'd be good to know.
Reflecting More on my Writing Experiences
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| Elsamuko. "Infinity Mirror Effect" 9/28/2010 via wikimedia. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License. |
This post will be questions and answers concerning my experience throughout the course.
1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?
Starting working. I can do my work all right once I start, but I always seem to drag it out, and start at, what time is it... around 9:00 the night before it's due. I know - I fully understand - declaratively, that it only makes it worse. It only seems so bad because that's how I make it. But it doesn't matter, when all I seem to have internalized is that it's horrible experience. Oh, well, I still did it all eventually.
2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
I learned that I really don't like doing things I don't want to. Also, I learned exactly how much time I need to do these posts, but more than that, I learned to effectively condense my work into as little time as possible - except for some times, which I'll talk about in #5.
3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.
A genre is a category. A defining set of common characteristics across everything within the genre. This allows readers to expect a certain style they want, and helps writers convey information in a way the readers will be on bard with. To be an effective writer, one must adhere to whatever conventions the genre demands, as A) They are usually conventions for a practical reason and B) not doing so would come off as weird, or worse, surprising and distracting from the message.
4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I'm not sure about further developing skills, beyond just passively doing so in writing the less-demanding pieces I'll still have to for other classes in college, and whatever my jobs make me do in the future. However, the practice I got for thinking critically, more than just "what is the author saying" will allow me to get more information from each thing I read from here on out. A fair trade-off, I'd say: some difficult work for permanently increasing what I can get out of everything.
5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?
Some times, I would actually lose myself - not often - and actually do my work for more intrinsic reasons than just "I've got to." The most vivid time this happened was during the peer review for project 3. I spent soooooooo long reviewing someone's project, and when I was done, I was actually proud of something I did in an English class. Now I don't even remember who's it was or what it was about, but what sticks with me was that through that person's text, I came to understand the topic, and the author's viewpoint, and I was able to work with that information in a meaningful way. (I hope it was meaningful, at least.) This was the sheet for it, and I think I spent 2 or 3 hours reading and working for it.
6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
Definitely from deadline 2 or 3, when I let the "don't start" impulses win. I spent a full 24 hour period doing a single deadline (Friday night 6 pm to Saturday 6pm) tying trying to start. I must have spent at least four total hours just looking at my screen. I ate a lot, took a lot of 'naps' (i couldn't drift off for more that 10 minutes before all I could think was "eeeeeeeeeeengliiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssh, must fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnniiiiiissssssssssssssh" and I would go back to staring. I also spent an hour going for the first walk I've gone on (walking for the sake of walking), and pretty much the rest taking breaks, my rationalization being "I've been at this a while, and nothing's changed. maybe if I leave and come back, I'll do my work."
Starting working. I can do my work all right once I start, but I always seem to drag it out, and start at, what time is it... around 9:00 the night before it's due. I know - I fully understand - declaratively, that it only makes it worse. It only seems so bad because that's how I make it. But it doesn't matter, when all I seem to have internalized is that it's horrible experience. Oh, well, I still did it all eventually.
2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
I learned that I really don't like doing things I don't want to. Also, I learned exactly how much time I need to do these posts, but more than that, I learned to effectively condense my work into as little time as possible - except for some times, which I'll talk about in #5.
3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.
A genre is a category. A defining set of common characteristics across everything within the genre. This allows readers to expect a certain style they want, and helps writers convey information in a way the readers will be on bard with. To be an effective writer, one must adhere to whatever conventions the genre demands, as A) They are usually conventions for a practical reason and B) not doing so would come off as weird, or worse, surprising and distracting from the message.
4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
I'm not sure about further developing skills, beyond just passively doing so in writing the less-demanding pieces I'll still have to for other classes in college, and whatever my jobs make me do in the future. However, the practice I got for thinking critically, more than just "what is the author saying" will allow me to get more information from each thing I read from here on out. A fair trade-off, I'd say: some difficult work for permanently increasing what I can get out of everything.
5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H?
Some times, I would actually lose myself - not often - and actually do my work for more intrinsic reasons than just "I've got to." The most vivid time this happened was during the peer review for project 3. I spent soooooooo long reviewing someone's project, and when I was done, I was actually proud of something I did in an English class. Now I don't even remember who's it was or what it was about, but what sticks with me was that through that person's text, I came to understand the topic, and the author's viewpoint, and I was able to work with that information in a meaningful way. (I hope it was meaningful, at least.) This was the sheet for it, and I think I spent 2 or 3 hours reading and working for it.
6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
Definitely from deadline 2 or 3, when I let the "don't start" impulses win. I spent a full 24 hour period doing a single deadline (Friday night 6 pm to Saturday 6pm) tying trying to start. I must have spent at least four total hours just looking at my screen. I ate a lot, took a lot of 'naps' (i couldn't drift off for more that 10 minutes before all I could think was "eeeeeeeeeeengliiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssh, must fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnniiiiiissssssssssssssh" and I would go back to staring. I also spent an hour going for the first walk I've gone on (walking for the sake of walking), and pretty much the rest taking breaks, my rationalization being "I've been at this a while, and nothing's changed. maybe if I leave and come back, I'll do my work."
Revisiting My Writing Process
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| 'Ambernectar 13.' "Evie Looking in the Mirror" 4/11/2012 via flickr. Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License. |
In my first post, "my writing process," I talked about how I write very little, and how I'm not a particularly good writer, probably because of that. I feel that now, I'm a little better, as I have written so much this semester, and been forced into those other categories, by participating in pre-writing work and revisions. However, the core of my view hasn't changed: I still don't enjoy writing, and I've already reached the point where I can write well enough. For example, in my other classes (and these are college-level writing situations), I very easily just wrote in a stream of consciousness (no revisions or pre-writing work), and got all A's. By this I mean that, while I don't think I'm an exceptional writer, I have the skills I will actually need to apply in any situation outside of an English class.
*I don't mean to poop all over this class - regardless of my attitude, it was very successful in forcing me to grow as a writer. The practice analyzing and actively thinking through text I did will continue to benefit me whenever I need to write.*
In terms of my prediction and plan for time management that I talked about in my second post, "Calendar Reflection," I thought I might be proactive each week. It turned out that I did have as much time as I though I would, but I never felt like I did. Maybe college freedom made me spend way too much time on other things that I wanted to do - and not much of it was actually video games - leaving me to do my homework for long periods of time. Ultimately I knew I might do all my work on Saturdays, as I implied with my tone in that post, But it all worked out all right.
For the future, I think, as I said, I'll be all right as far as writing goes. It might seem like my work ethic is trash, but I do enough work, and in subjects I have an interest (and no mental barriers stopping me from hating what I have to do), I have and will put in much more time and effort, because I choose to study those things.
*I don't mean to poop all over this class - regardless of my attitude, it was very successful in forcing me to grow as a writer. The practice analyzing and actively thinking through text I did will continue to benefit me whenever I need to write.*
In terms of my prediction and plan for time management that I talked about in my second post, "Calendar Reflection," I thought I might be proactive each week. It turned out that I did have as much time as I though I would, but I never felt like I did. Maybe college freedom made me spend way too much time on other things that I wanted to do - and not much of it was actually video games - leaving me to do my homework for long periods of time. Ultimately I knew I might do all my work on Saturdays, as I implied with my tone in that post, But it all worked out all right.
For the future, I think, as I said, I'll be all right as far as writing goes. It might seem like my work ethic is trash, but I do enough work, and in subjects I have an interest (and no mental barriers stopping me from hating what I have to do), I have and will put in much more time and effort, because I choose to study those things.
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