In this final blog post, I will be composing a reflection about my experiences in this class. On the last day of class, Professor Mangini asked us to write a list of 10 things that we accomplished throughout the semester that we were proud of. Below you will see a picture of my list. I will elaborate on some of my accomplishments as well. Taking Eng 100 & Eng 112 with Professor Mangini has been the most beneficial part of my college career. Eng 112 was not even a course that was necessary for my degree, however I took it because of how much I learned last semester and how much I grew as a writer. I enjoyed these courses more than I thought was possible.
To think about the fact that I composed 20,000 words in only two semesters, is absolutely insane. It makes me feel very accomplished. It is amazing to look back on my work and see how much I have grown as a writer in the past year. I know I will always have this website to reflect on throughout the rest of my college experience and that is very important to me. I will use what I learned in this class for the rest of my life. When I saw that we had to make a vlog instead of a blog, I got very nervous. I just figured it would be very awkward and difficult to speak to a computer screen for 2 minutes straight. However, I am glad I had this experience. I planned out my vlog in writing beforehand, and once I began speaking it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I actually thought it was easier than sitting down and writing out all your thoughts. The narrative that I composed about my mother's accident, was an emotional experience. I never would have thought that I would revisit that time in my life again. I keep it locked up in the back of my mind, so to go back to that time in my life mentally, was difficult. Even though it was difficult, I still actually enjoyed writing about it in the end. I think it gave me some peace to put those thoughts into words and reflect on it. The counterfactual part of the second draft, was what made it even more difficult. That was probably my least favorite part of the semester, just because it was surreal to think and write about something that didn't even happen. I successfully completed it though so that's all that matters. Overall, I am incredibly happy with the end product in this class. I truly believe my writerly identity has grown substantially this year. I strengthened my ability to engage in processes and make meaning. I know I will take all of the information I learned in this class with me, and actually use it for what it's worth.
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This weeks blog post will consist of a 5-10 minute vlog of myself speaking/reflecting on my experience so far in my English Composition II class. I will conclude my reflection by speaking on my primary intrinsic English Composition II goals for the rest of the semester. For my Narrative Project, I wrote a detailed scene from my freshman year of high-school when I got the news that my mom had been in a serious motorcycle accident. I was sitting in class when I received a text message and my story relives that moment as well as the rest of that day. This blog post will contain two sections. In the first section I will be creating a free-form excerpting and remixing Found Poem. The second section will consist of a reflection about the content in my Narrative Project.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section I: Found Poem The Anchor Faintly, burning, sinking Beams of light into the ocean Anchor from the night before Overlooking, and Sinking lower, rushed, and rolled over Humid, hectic, plump Twisting and wrapping Slamming in her face Cracked and fractured Skimmed burning eyelids Exploding all over Panic overlooking and Replayed to the fifth floor Shooting through the roof An accident ZZZZ ZZZ Gibberish Flush the words Leaking Uncontrollably The blank stare My brain trying The vibe, Clammy and cracked Unreasonable and scary Feeling the smell Clenched my breathing Released And Rescued WAKE UP And relief In control In that moment Lucky to be alive, world ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section II: Reflection
Before completing this weeks blog post we were given a short story, My Mother Gives me a Writing Lesson (Martin Lee), which provided information on creating action in writing with details and description. This blog post will consist of me revising and adding to my story from blog post #5.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I sat in math class during my freshman year of highschool, in my own little world, I felt my stomach twisting and wrapping itself up into one of those ridiculous pretzel yoga positions. I felt like my brain had lost it's operator, like that one episode of Spongebob where all his thoughts and memories were exploding all over the place. I was trying so hard to imagine all the possible places my mom could've been that morning. It was just so unlike her. She drove me to school every morning. ZZZZ ZZZ. I felt my phone buzz in the back pocket of the sweatpants I had on the night before, because of how hectic my morning was I just ran out the door for school without changing. I excused myself from the classroom and shuffled into the hallway to check my text message. It was from my dad. “Your mom was in a motorcycle accident late last night. I don’t know if she is going to be okay.” I felt the olive color of my skin flush to white from head to toe. My stomach released from that tight yoga position and exploded throughout my entire body. My throat closed up and I could feel my eyes leaking uncontrollably. As I navigated through the humid, grey concrete hallways, all I was focused on was catching my breath. I made it to my Jeep and attempted to gather myself before driving to Hahnemann Hospital. All I could think about was the argument her and I had the night before which ended in me slamming my door in her face. I replayed everything in my head. It is completely mind-blowing to me how that morning, the second I opened my eyes, I immediately had a funny feeling in my stomach. I had no clue why, but I did. Come to find out my mom had went out for a drink after our argument the previous night. She got on a motorcycle with some drunk dude bribing her with cheesesteaks in the city. Little did she know he would hit a vehicle head on, causing her to fly off the back. He ditched the Ben Franklin Parkway because some how he was not injured at all, leaving her there to be rescued by the ambulance. I truly believe she has a guardian angel watching over her. The vibe in that place was dreary, and clenched onto me as soon as I stepped foot in the door. The smell of sanitation and rubber gloves crept up my nose. I trekked up to the fifth floor where my mom was being kept. The doctors approached me and told me she was lucky to be alive. She had a cracked skull, a fractured spine, and a bunch of cuts and bruises. I remember thinking to myself, “Never leave a loved one on a bad note. No matter what the issue is, if you’re saying goodbye for the day, tell them you love them.” In this blog post I will reflect on the things I learned this semester in my English Composition I class.
I remember Professor Mangini telling us we were going to finish this class a different person, a better writer. I did not necessarily believe him when he said that. It seemed like something every teacher says on the first day of class. But he was right. I have learned so much this semester about what being a writer actually means. How they each have their own imperfect process. It wasn’t all about the grammar and other English stuff. All that stuff is definitely important to learn, but it’s not something that will better the quality of your writing. This class had an entire different approach on English Composition. I felt curious each class on how to expand my brain. One of my favorite things we did this semester was watch a documentary called Where to Invade Next, featuring Michael Moore. You can find a summary to the film in my blog. But vaguely, Michael Moore was interviewing people in different countries and comparing them to America and how we’re doing it wrong. After we watched the film we learned what a rhetorical analysis was and wrote one on Michael Moore. I thought it was interesting that a rhetorical analysis focuses on how the writer writes, not the information itself. I analyzed the strategies Michael Moore used to get his point across. Such as; ethos, logos, pathos, telos, and kairos. He does certain things throughout the film to persuade the audiences to believe what he is saying is true. He makes sure he provides plenty of background information so that the viewer is well informed, but also remains persuasive. Now that I learned what a rhetorical analysis is I can use it with other school documentaries. I really enjoyed learning how to blog. The assignments that we had each weekend in the beginning of the semester were really interesting to me. I loved reading the short stories and writing a response on how I interpreted it. Then, relating that story to a time in my own life. It was a cool way of transitioning your brain into something more personal and actually writing it down. I’ve never really written about my personal life before. I have everything stored somewhere in my brain. It was a good feeling to be able to find a way to relate to a piece of writing. The even better part about the blog posts was that each blog post was apart of our process for our two major assignments. The Life Choice Memoir and the Research Paper. I did not realize what Professor Mangini meant when he consistently reminded us that our blog posts will help us later in the semester. The beginning half of the blog posts having us relate to problematic experiences in our lives was getting us thinking about our topic for our memoir. We wrote about a time in our life where we had to make a difficult decision. Then watching the documentary and doing the blog posts for that, helped us with the research paper. I don’t think I would have been able to just write a research paper from a prompt. The movie was a great way to introduce the assignment. We were able to watch someone being persuasive. This class really opened my eyes to the world of writing. In one of our recent class we had to free write about how writing the research paper made us feel. I found this very inspiring. Getting those thoughts off your mind and making room for more important tasks and thoughts is something I need to do regularly. I noticed how clear my mind was after writing a lot of my stressful thoughts down. In this blog post I will discuss my process for before, during, and after writing my research paper. I co-authored my research paper with Kelli Keffer, a student from another class. Here is a link to her blog. Before writing this post we reviewed the video Reflective Writing. This video describes a useful way to write a reflective writing piece. We just finished the first draft of our Research Paper: Eat Great, Perform Greater. We have a lot of revising and editing to do. Our Research Paper provided an argument on how America should serve healthier elementary school lunches.
I set myself up in my basement where there is an oversized desk, put headphones in, and stayed there almost all day. This was the first time I ever did this. Typically I go to Starbucks to do my work because it's easier for me to stay on task when I'm not in the comfort of my own home. I think writing down there is going to be apart of my new process.
While watching "Where to Invade Next" seeing how the French serve lunches in school really grabbed our attention. We are also very into healthy eating and nutrient so we knew it would be interesting to us. We did however think that there would be more information on it. Why wouldn't you want your children's school lunches to be healthier? But it was a little harder to find information on it then we were was expecting.
A Life-Choice Memoir is a narrative written about a specific time in your life where you had to make a personal, difficult decision. I have chosen to write about my decision to not go to college immediately following high school. This blog post will provide you with some insight into how my process affected the writing of my Life-Choice Memoir.
Before I began this blog post, I watched a video on Reflective Writing to get a better understanding of staying focused on reflecting rather than just retelling. Below are a series of questions focusing on my positive and negative thoughts on the completion of my memoir. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For this post, I have chosen my favorite quotes about the author's writing processes from three separate readings. I have also provided three of my own quotes related to my personal writing process.
Below are the three readings I have read and annotated:
Source #1: Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray)
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