Dear classmates,
As I sit here in class and write this letter to you, I find myself thinking about the reading processes we’ve learned. Professor Mangini taught us two different types of reading processes. For the first reading process, he told us to separate the reading into sections. On the left margin of these sections, he told us to write a short description of the section. On the right margin, he had us draw pictures that symbolizes what happened in that section. After doing this, just looking at the pictures I drew helped me instantly remember what I read. For the second reading process, he had our class try to create a storyboard, but I didn’t find this nearly as helpful because there were no words. There were only pictures.
The first reading process we’ve learned really helped me with all of the readings we’ve done. Readings like “How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call” by Carolyn Chute, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott, “Zen in the Art of Writing” by Ray Bradbury, “6 Ways to be a Hemingway-Level Productive Badass” by Drake Baer, “Everyone Knew I was Gay, Except My Brother” by Brian Kennedy, “My Name is Margaret” by Maya Angelou, “Miracle Woman” by Rebecca Skloot, and “Redeployment” by Phil Klay. They helped me by giving me tips on how to write. Carolyn Chute taught me to sit down in a comfortable, quiet place to write. Anne Lamott taught me that it’s good to write shitty first drafts and getting someone to critique your essay is a good way to make revisions. Ray Bradbury taught me to write ideas down while they’re fresh in your head, and even if the don’t make sense, you can edit them later. Drake Baer taught me to walk around to get your creative juices flowing, spread your work out into separate days so you’re not doing everything all in one day, keep track of how much you write per day so you’re not falling behind, get up early to get more work done, and stay focused. They all had a positive impact on my writing process.
Professor Mangini also had a huge impact on my writing just by having me blog. Having a website and blogging weekly really helped improve my writing. Not only that, but it also helped me get a lot of material for my creative nonfiction essay. My “Week 1-2 Reflection” was very helpful because it’s the topic for my whole creative nonfiction essay. My “Writer’s Roundtable” post was also helpful because it was a good practice for writing dialogue. My “Showing Scene” post was another helpful post because it gave me practice writing showing scenes. Then there is my “Week 6 Reflection” which consisted of all the steps I took to write my creative nonfiction essay.
I feel that my “Week 6 Reflection” post was one of my most helpful posts. It showed the 6 steps I used for my writing process. Step 1 is that you have to walk around to get your creative juices flowing. I find this step very helpful when I can’t think of anything to write. Step 2 is that you have to write to get ideas. You can’t just sit there and expect the whole paper to come to you instantly. Step 3 is to separate your workload into separate days. To be honest, I didn’t really find this step helpful. I did everything in one day. Step 4 is to wake up early, so you can get more work done. I woke up at 8:00 in the morning and got all my work done in one day. Step 5 is don’t waste your time. Make writing a your top priority. Finally, step 6 is stay focused and don’t get distracted. I had a bit of trouble with this one, but I managed to do it.
I used those 6 steps to write my creative nonfiction essay, but here’s what I did to revise it. On the draft I printed out, I put a box around my showing scenes. Then I wrote a short description of each scene in my notebook. Then I answered the 5 questions. Who is in my story? What happened in my story? When did my story take place? Where did my story take place? Why did my story happened? Then I went through my story and underlined anytime I appealed to the five senses. Then I found my themes and marked where they were in my story. Finally I wrote down any questions I had about revisions to my essay and passed it to another student in my class so they could read it and give me feedback. I used all these steps to revise my essay by adding more showing scenes, more details that appeal to the five senses, more details involving my themes, and more dialogue.
I not only used these tips to help me write my creative nonfiction essay, but also my I-Search paper. I used my blog to practice writing rhetorical analysis'. Learning how to do this helped me reach my audience when writing my I-Search paper. I also used my blog to try and find a topic to discuss. We posted about our views on Ebola, we watched the movie Food, Inc. and wrote a review of it, and we found a topic to post about on Room for Debate. We did all this stuff to find a topic for our I-search paper. I ended up writing mine on my room for debate topic, 'Should Parents Help Their Child with Homework?' Then our final blog post was our research plan. We used this plan to organize our I-search paper.
Since the beginning of my English Composition 1 Course, my view of writing has changed drastically. First of all, I used to be a terrible writer, at least that’s how my teachers made me feel, but in this class, I feel like I’m actually a good writer. Also, I used to think writing was boring. Whenever we’d write essays in highschool, we would write about boring topics that we’ve researched. Now, I actually think writing is fun. I now see writing as an art. It’s a creative way to express yourself.
Sincerely,
Paige
As I sit here in class and write this letter to you, I find myself thinking about the reading processes we’ve learned. Professor Mangini taught us two different types of reading processes. For the first reading process, he told us to separate the reading into sections. On the left margin of these sections, he told us to write a short description of the section. On the right margin, he had us draw pictures that symbolizes what happened in that section. After doing this, just looking at the pictures I drew helped me instantly remember what I read. For the second reading process, he had our class try to create a storyboard, but I didn’t find this nearly as helpful because there were no words. There were only pictures.
The first reading process we’ve learned really helped me with all of the readings we’ve done. Readings like “How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call” by Carolyn Chute, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott, “Zen in the Art of Writing” by Ray Bradbury, “6 Ways to be a Hemingway-Level Productive Badass” by Drake Baer, “Everyone Knew I was Gay, Except My Brother” by Brian Kennedy, “My Name is Margaret” by Maya Angelou, “Miracle Woman” by Rebecca Skloot, and “Redeployment” by Phil Klay. They helped me by giving me tips on how to write. Carolyn Chute taught me to sit down in a comfortable, quiet place to write. Anne Lamott taught me that it’s good to write shitty first drafts and getting someone to critique your essay is a good way to make revisions. Ray Bradbury taught me to write ideas down while they’re fresh in your head, and even if the don’t make sense, you can edit them later. Drake Baer taught me to walk around to get your creative juices flowing, spread your work out into separate days so you’re not doing everything all in one day, keep track of how much you write per day so you’re not falling behind, get up early to get more work done, and stay focused. They all had a positive impact on my writing process.
Professor Mangini also had a huge impact on my writing just by having me blog. Having a website and blogging weekly really helped improve my writing. Not only that, but it also helped me get a lot of material for my creative nonfiction essay. My “Week 1-2 Reflection” was very helpful because it’s the topic for my whole creative nonfiction essay. My “Writer’s Roundtable” post was also helpful because it was a good practice for writing dialogue. My “Showing Scene” post was another helpful post because it gave me practice writing showing scenes. Then there is my “Week 6 Reflection” which consisted of all the steps I took to write my creative nonfiction essay.
I feel that my “Week 6 Reflection” post was one of my most helpful posts. It showed the 6 steps I used for my writing process. Step 1 is that you have to walk around to get your creative juices flowing. I find this step very helpful when I can’t think of anything to write. Step 2 is that you have to write to get ideas. You can’t just sit there and expect the whole paper to come to you instantly. Step 3 is to separate your workload into separate days. To be honest, I didn’t really find this step helpful. I did everything in one day. Step 4 is to wake up early, so you can get more work done. I woke up at 8:00 in the morning and got all my work done in one day. Step 5 is don’t waste your time. Make writing a your top priority. Finally, step 6 is stay focused and don’t get distracted. I had a bit of trouble with this one, but I managed to do it.
I used those 6 steps to write my creative nonfiction essay, but here’s what I did to revise it. On the draft I printed out, I put a box around my showing scenes. Then I wrote a short description of each scene in my notebook. Then I answered the 5 questions. Who is in my story? What happened in my story? When did my story take place? Where did my story take place? Why did my story happened? Then I went through my story and underlined anytime I appealed to the five senses. Then I found my themes and marked where they were in my story. Finally I wrote down any questions I had about revisions to my essay and passed it to another student in my class so they could read it and give me feedback. I used all these steps to revise my essay by adding more showing scenes, more details that appeal to the five senses, more details involving my themes, and more dialogue.
I not only used these tips to help me write my creative nonfiction essay, but also my I-Search paper. I used my blog to practice writing rhetorical analysis'. Learning how to do this helped me reach my audience when writing my I-Search paper. I also used my blog to try and find a topic to discuss. We posted about our views on Ebola, we watched the movie Food, Inc. and wrote a review of it, and we found a topic to post about on Room for Debate. We did all this stuff to find a topic for our I-search paper. I ended up writing mine on my room for debate topic, 'Should Parents Help Their Child with Homework?' Then our final blog post was our research plan. We used this plan to organize our I-search paper.
Since the beginning of my English Composition 1 Course, my view of writing has changed drastically. First of all, I used to be a terrible writer, at least that’s how my teachers made me feel, but in this class, I feel like I’m actually a good writer. Also, I used to think writing was boring. Whenever we’d write essays in highschool, we would write about boring topics that we’ve researched. Now, I actually think writing is fun. I now see writing as an art. It’s a creative way to express yourself.
Sincerely,
Paige