Response Blog: February 1, 2012

Lamott Summary: In Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts." she discusses how writing a first draft is what gets even good writers to produce their final product. Anne goes on to talk about the importance of needing that shitty first draft to then move onto the second and then the third.

King Summary: In Stephen King's "What Writing Is," he discusses the use of telepathy and how it takes us to that spot that we love to go and read or create new ideas, like with how he likes to write.

Goodman Summary: In Allegra Goodman's "Calming the Inner Critic and Getting to Work," Allegra talks about how you can't let the 'inner critic' get to you and you have to concentrate on your writing as itself and to love your material because it's your work.

Haruf Summary: In his piece, "To See Your Story Clearly, Start by Pulling the Wool over Your Own Eyes," Kent Haruf discusses about the sentimental things we have around us that gives inspiration when we write.

Sontag Summary: In her piece, "Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed," Susan Sontag discusses the difference of how people feel about reading and writing. She talks more about creativity with it.

Diaz Summary: In Junot Diaz, "Becoming a Writer," he discusses about how he became to be a writer and how it did not come easy and took him awhile, but because even when he felt no hope he went back to writing anyway.


Using These Essays: Reading their writing processes I felt that they were all unique and had a different way of telling their story. I didn't think any metaphors were the same and I felt they do struggle with rules, but as it is said all writers do. All of them have had problems like they discusses. Yes, he would have benefited from these.

MM: 1. I found it useful about writing a first "shitty" draft and moving on to a second one and from that to the third. Another was to be by sentimental things for inspiration. Third, placing my mind somewhere else to think.
2. What has changed is my conception that writing always comes easy to writers. With reading all of these pieces I have come to realize that really is not true.

Response Blog: January 30, 2012

Harris Summary: In Muriel Harris's "Composing Behaviors of One- and Multi-draft Writers," Harris discusses the difference of a one-draft writer and a multi-draft writer. He gives reasons and discusses why people think that one is better than the other.

Response: I would say that I am more of a one-draft writer because I do not work through many drafts of revision. I should be trying harder with writing and having more drafts, but in the past I have always just added corrections to my one draft.

Ransom Summary: In "How Do I Write," Ransom does research on the study of one's own process of writing. Research also helps demonstrate how the person can better understand their own writing process and how it affects their writing. (pg. 293)

Questions to Consider: 1. I still feel the niche I need to fill is with revising. If I did my own study and research I would love to compare if I took more time and did more drafts and revision how much my paper would change.
2. I think that happens to me a lot because when I write and am putting down words it leads me to think. I have to brainstorm often to come up with my ideas.

Reflection: In both the pieces of work I found them helpful, but I felt in Harris's work it was a lot longer to get to the points where as in Ransom works it was nice because it should her research and got to the point in a few pages and was easier to understand.

Response Blog: January 27, 2012

Summary: In "Tuning, Tying, and Training Texts: Metaphors for Revision," Barbara Tomlinson discusses how professional writers use metaphors to describe the ways they develop their writing. (pg. 251) She chooses eight stories that are about revising instead of talking about the whole process.

QD: 1. She may say this because it's in the form of a metaphor.
2. It can also be a way of not seeing writing because it can be hard sometimes to find the underlying message. We can get around this by still making our writing individualized.
3. I don't really use any, but I'd say the 'sewing' one I feel because I always later have to go back and patch things up in my work. I need to spend more time 'fixing things' on my revising because that is something that I know I lack.
4. I think she did because when she says 'later' "less flexible" I do not think that it is really ever to late to go back to something.
5. Metaphors do not have that big of an effort on my revising.

Reflection: This piece was interesting in the fact that is was showing you that some metaphors are figurative.

Response Blog: Jamuary 25, 2012

Summary: In "Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing Writer," Carol discusses her research she did on Murray, paying close attention to the setting in 'which the writer composes, the kind of task the writer confronts, what the writer can tell us of his own processes.'

QD: 1. I was impressed with how well his process is of writing. I do not feel I am as collected as he is, but the way he goes about his writing and his processes is similar in the sense that I have a specific way I go about my papers.
2. His audience seems to be an official one where when I write I normally am just thinking of the audience as people of my own age.
3. Formed a more intricate set of steps to the understanding and showed how it is important.

AEI: 1. I would have to say I do not spend as much time revising my papers as I know that I should. I normally will go through and look at spelling and my sentences and such, but I never really dig deeper than that and never really revise it as a whole. I just find myself looking at different sections of the paper and revising it that way.

MM: I will use the revising and editing part a lot more with my writings. I feel this will be very beneficial and will help myself understand that it does take a lot of time to produce a piece of work and that it is okay to take awhile when you are editing.

Reflection: I liked this piece because it gave more insight to when you are writing a research paper the different steps that you can take for it to be efficient.

Response Blog: January 23, 2012

Summary: In Kleine's article "What Is It We Do When We Write Articles Like This One - and How Can We Get Students to Join Us?" Kleine discusses how he discovers research based on his and other English colleagues with their stage model. He interviewed researches to see how their thoughts and ideas compared.

QD: 1. Kleine lines up with my own experience pretty well because I feel I would just write my past research papers without really thinking or digging deep into them.
3. In the research of the professionals Kleine interviews, the sources do not play a big role. Sources were always a big deal to me before, making sure I got a lot of information from various sources. In comparing we should be looking more into detail than just sources.
4. I would dig into the research more and would try to analyze more as well.

Reflection: I enjoyed this piece because it made me realize their is more to writing a research paper and that the next tine I have to write one I will dig deeper into it and I will not be so focused on just the sources that I find everything from.

Response Blog: January 19, 2012

Allen Summary: In "The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer," Allen discusses the idea that writing does not always come easy to people, but it is a process that is adapted through a connection of understanding. Even those who are English writers still struggle at times to write.

Allen Response: In this article I could relate myself with how I feel writing is not always easy. Most of the time, I have a preconceived idea that for writers is is always natural and comes easy to them, but that is not always the case. It makes me feel better because I know that a lot of times I go through writing blocks and get frustrated.

Murray Summary: In "All Writing is Autobiography," Murray is trying to prove that we all use experience, from our lives, but some of it is fictional. In paragraph 24, he argues it to be an autobiography because academic writing is nonfiction and therefore autobiography.

GRR:For school writing making it 'personal' was sometimes hard to do because when we wrote our research papers we were always told not to use I statements and to me that meant no involving any personal experience.

QD: 1. Murray is asking us to reconsider the construct authorship and originality.
3. Murray's article is different from others because he is proving his point on writing being autobiographical unlike when Porter talks about intertexuality.
4. Murray's work belongs to the genre of "scholarly article" because he is writing to help others understand the logic behind his ideas.
5. They change the way I think about writing because now I feel is is all autobiographical and I can put myself and my ideas in it more.

MM: One positive way is it will help me when I write to know incorporating my own ideas/experiences is a good thing. Another positive way is I will look at readings differently knowing it's not only objective.

Dawkin's Summary: In "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool," Dawkins argues that he has a simple system for punctuation, rather then the manuals of college handbooks, that he says are all wrong. He gives different ways to show more emphasis on punctuation.

GRR: (1) The treehouse made of wood scraps and cardboard, makes a great place for my sister to play with her friends.
(2) My sister's treehouse she played in with her friends is made of scraps and cardboard.
(3) The scraps and cardboard made up the treehouse my sister played in with her friends.

QD: 2. Dawkins says handbooks rules provide no instruction for use of the comma, or they don't discuss the problem of punctuating three or more independent clauses as a single sentence.
3. Raising and lowering is when you use a higher choice of punctuation to clarify and lowering is the opposite of raising, it is more subtle.
5. With punctuation, I now know that different punctuation can hold a higher or lower meaning in the context you use.
6. I normally don't worry about punctuation because I feel I have gotten in a habit of when I use commas, periods, etc. He has changed my mind though because I never remember to use punctuation for more emphasis, such as a colon or dash.

MM: This article helps you understand the basis behind punctuation. If someone just reads about it then you are likely to not listen, but reading and looking at the example helps.

My response: I really enjoyed the first article the most because I felt like I could relate to what Allen said the most because I felt it was very true.

Response Blog: January 13, 2012

Steadman Summary:
In the article "Annoying Ways People Use Sources," Steadman argues that writers can forget their readers may get aggravated when they fail to follow 'rules' just as someone who is stuck behind a car in the fast lane. Steadman goes about explaining this problem with examples of writing from his first year students. He goes on to show different ways that quotations may not be used right or are going to confuse the reader.

Response:
Steadman's advice goes well with the other authors because they are all giving construction on writing, how to better understand the main points. I've been taught to either use the in-text citations or to just use a works cited page at the end. My views have changes because of all the readings we have read for the most part they just have a works cited page at the end. They do not have as many direct quotes where they would have to use the in-text citations.

Response Blog: Jamuary 11, 2012

Summary: In "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community," Porter argues that with all texts intertexuality is used because all texts contain traces of other texts. An example he uses is Jefferson's writing of the Declaration. The Declaration actually has work from other people in it. A discourse community is those who form a group by a common bond who deems what they think is validated.

GRR: I get help for my writing from teachers, peers, parents, librarians, and books.  A lot of papers that I have to write are research based so I feel a lot of my ideas come from reading. I know that if I need help with grammatical errors or needing someone to revise my paper I always ask an English teacher first.

QD: 2. I do not believe that intertext makes writers less important. I believe this because even though they are using 'traces' from other writers they still are using some of their thoughts to form one piece and make it a final project.

 3. He calls an autonomous writer "romantic" because the writer has a 'free, uninhibited spirit, as independent, creative genius.'

4. Before reading Porter's criterion for writings "acceptability" I just assumed when my papers were written that they were graded upon grammar, punctuation, etc. I never thought about it being within a 'community.' My writing has always been evaluated by a teacher, adult, or peer.

5. His work is incorporating what he says is intertextuality and includes examples of past writings. It does reflect his principles because he is explaining his idea behind the meaning of intertexuality. In order for him to do that he has to use other pieces to give evidence of what he is trying to get across.

6. The harm is that intertextuality supports is already institutionalized so when we are being told we are writing as just an individual, we are being told a false statement.

MM: Porter's study has changed the way I imagine writers and writing because now I see it as a junction of other people's work combined into one. It would change the way I write because I feel I would be adding a lot more to my writing from others.

My thoughts: I really liked this past reading from Porter a lot because it gave me an insight that I never had thought or new about before. This writing intrigued me and kept me wanting to read more about 'intertextuality.'

Response Blog: January 9, 2012

Reading Games Summary:  In the essay of “Reading Games” by Karen Rosenberg she focuses a lot on talking about how to pick up the important topics in the readings. She explained how it was hard for her through her undergraduate to focus on scholarly reading, but by graduate school she began to love them because she gained insight to make reading more productive. Conversation is key when talking about scholarly work.  

Chapter 1 Intro Summary: This section talks a lot about the misconceptions that people have about writing. It also talks about how there are many constructs that we encounter, such as plagiarism and error, but not all constructs are negative.

Kantz Summary: Throughout this part it talks about how there is more to writing and reading then just getting the information, we are interacting with it as well. In Kantz’s article she writes about students who while doing their essays make it to be more creative then when you just state all the facts from previous history books.

Rhetoric/rhetorical means: rhetoric/ rhetorical means to me when you think of a rhetorical question. You are thinking of how to interpret what someone just said. Rhetoric has to deal with reading academic articles because rhetoric is typically used for communication between the speakers and the writers to get things done. When you are reading academic articles you need to be conveying the message that the writer is telling you. 

WAW 1-3,6: 1. Kantz contends that the facts, opinions, and arguments are not always untrue. It’s if you either agree or disagree with it.

 2. Students do not know that not all the texts are true. We often assume that everything we read is right when it could be false. We don’t think that it is just opinions, but we feel it is always facts. I feel that this is correct because I know that when I read, I automatically assume that it is real. I feel I understand better, but I am sure I will sometimes still automatically believe it to be true.

3. Yes, I thought it taught me more because now I will not just focus on the facts, but know that they may not always be true but may be an opinion.

6. I think Kantz’s ideas will change my approach to doing research and writing with resources because it will change my outlook when I do a research paper.

MM: Kantz is trying to analyze the constructs of rhetoric because of the persuasive speech. I also think another construct would be plagiarism when she talks about how when you cite a paper if it is not the actual fact.

Topic Idea for Paper 1: The idea of error; grammatical and mechanical mistakes in text. (How does text messaging, ect. affect how we write)

Response Blog: January 6, 2012

GRR: (1) The word argument is used in everyday conversation whether someone is talking about an argument they had with a friend or talking about people who are in the middle of an argument. Gossip happens a lot and people may be talking about an argument that might arise out of the situation or what they are talking about can be blown into an argument. My definition of argument is when two people or more are having a disagreement about a problem that they do not agree on. In an academic setting I feel that when people talk about an argument it deals more with a discussion than just being mad at someone for not agreeing with you. The two meanings are different because when it is an argument in an academic setting it is about intellectual thoughts and an argument outside is more about your emotions.

QD (1-3): 1. According to Greene we will be asked to write essays, editorials, and by asking a question that will interest us.

2. Greene quotes Burke’s passage because it shows exactly what he talks about when he says how arguments are a part of what we do every day. The metaphor is showing that even when someone walks into an argument that has already been started, certain events are triggered and they are able to jump right into the conversation. It challenges others to see how they would react to a situation like this.

3. Framing can help you to compose your voice in an argument. The metaphor that underlies it is describing the lens, or perspective from which the writer is presenting their argument. For Greene the concept is important because it helps you to form your reasons for developing an argument. Framing encourages you to distinguish the way you think from how others do. 

AEI: (2) Yes, I think that Greene’s article represents a conversation with the reader. He frames his argument by including other authors and I would say from the article that Greene practices what he preaches in “Argument as Conversation.”

My thoughts on writing

I feel writing is a form of expression for you to be able to put down your emotions or your thoughts into words that can have an effect for others. It lets people run their imaginations or gives those who may not like to talk about something, but are able to write it in words to get it across to others. Whenever I have a topic that interests me I can always write for a long time.