Entry #18

I think multigenre writing is a lot more work than the traditional paper, but it can be fun because you get to create a variety of things, such as ads, lists, letters, and business cards. It has shown me that there are other ways of presenting your message to your readers. Plus, the freedom in how the message is presented allows the readers to be entertained and more willing to listen to what you say; its not just another 6 pages full of Times New Roman script about how something matters or why something needs to change. For me, the research has not been all that different from any other, so I really have not learned anything new about me as a researcher, except there are very few books comparing Mac and Windows. As for what I have learned about my topic if I had not if I was writing a traditional research paper, I think I have learned that there are a variety of ways to present my idea, as I do not really see much of a difference, for my topic at least, of the type of sources and research I need and had to do for my sources. I guess for some topics there might be a need for different information, maybe more about people instead of the topic, but I really did not need this information. However, I have had to look up pictures for use as visuals in my genres, so that is something I would not have done for a traditional research paper.

Entry #20

Hello future/current, I guess, ENG 110 students. After already taken this course, I can offer some advise for you. The first would be that you shouldn’t have to worry about having too much work. In the first part of the semester there is a lot of reading, but it tends to tapper off as the year goes on. You will only really have four major things to do as well, but you can’t procrastinate too much on them since you will have to do them in steps, like several drafts for peer editing. Sometimes the actual class time can seem pretty tedious as well, since a lot of what we did didn’t really help me much since I knew a lot about what we talked about, so be prepared to be bored sometimes. You will also have to blog entries, but they aren’t too difficult. That said; don’t just put them off as they do count for a lot of points (that also means they are an easy way to get points). I would make a plan for these and work on them gradually so you don’t have a lot to do at the end of the semester. I would also plan your projects out as well so you aren’t always doing them the night before or right before class. It made it easier for me if my drafts were written as the final as I did not have much revision to do later. A lot of emphasis is placed on peer review, which sometimes helped, but other times I thought it was just a waste of a class period, but it can be useful if you aren’t a strong writer. Hopefully this will help get a feel for what the course will be like. Good luck!

Entry #15

The first grammar error that I struggle with is comma usage. This is the comma splice or the comma fault, which is when you use a comma where a semicolon should be used instead. I struggle a lot with knowing when to include a comma or when not to include a comma. This caused me to fail the grammar portion of a paper in my AP English Literature class once. I plan to edit my papers for this problem by reading through and finding the independent clauses. Once I find them, I will see if any of them are joined using a comma. If they are, I know I need to change it. Another plan with this is to have someone else read my paper to look for the same thing.

The second grammar error I struggle with is unnecessary words. Unnecessary words are words that detract from the clarity of the writing and can be replaced with words that are more direct. An example of this is “due to the fact that,” which can be replaced with “because.” I tend to use this because I think that my writing sound more academic. However, sometimes I catch myself doing this and change it to a more direct form; other times I do not catch it. In order to edit my papers for this error, I plan to begin to learn what are unnecessary words and their replacements so I can change them when I find them. I plan to find them by rereading my papers and looking for the unnecessary words, which Word can help me find with the green squiggly line.

Entry #13

The main argument of the “Rosie the Riverter” poster from World War II is that the women that were filling in jobs left by men going off to fight in Europe and the Pacific can do those jobs. It was designed to recruit more women to the work force as it helped give them a bargaining position for women’s rights. It also was meant to show the American society that women were quite capable of producing airplanes and tanks. In order to build the image of a strong woman worker, the poster shows a women with her hair tied back and flexing her arm muscles in order to show she has the strength to hold her place in the work force. Furthermore, she has a serious look on her face showing that women can be serious workers. The poster also employs clear font so that there is not difficulty in understanding the text. The giant image also draws the attention to the attributes of the working woman, and the voice box shows that she is defending herself and calling other women into the work force during World War II. The color also does this as it is not too bright that it distracts the viewer from the message of the poster, but the blue surrounding the text makes the text, and the woman, stand out against the yellow background, as well as attracting the viewer’s attention. Therefore, I think the designer effectively portrayed the message of the poster to those who viewed it.

Entry #14

· 11:00 a.m. made a to-do list and updated my planner

· 12:00 p.m. wrote my annotated bibliography and edited the letter for Project 3

· 1:15 p.m. posted a comment on Facebook

· 2:30 p.m. edited my lab report draft

· 3:35 p.m. Instant messaged friends

· 5:30 p.m. wrote down directions to the Apple Store in Durham

· 10:47 p.m. added some things to my to-do list

· 2:50 p.m. instant messaged friends

· 4:30 p.m. Wrote my blog entries for English 110

· 6:13 p.m. wrote more for my blog entries

Writing plays an important part in my life because a lot of my time is spent writing, either academically or socially. For the most part, I spend most my time writing on a computer by writing papers or other homework or writing instant messages to my friends or on Facebook. Also, the majority of my writing is informal as I am either updating my planner or other academic homework that does not require the formal tone. In contrast, a lot of my lengthy writing is for academic purposes because I do not find it enjoyable just to start writing a paper or a journal that is not for an assignment. However, since this time period was over the weekend, a good amount of my writing, even though it was on instant messenger, was for personal reasons as I needed to remember directions or things I needed to do.

Entry #12

• Academic inquiry—“the act of identifying shared questions and then seeking reasonable answers about subjects studied in a college or university” (Callaghan 4)
• Question at issue—“questions that have at least two possible, supportable answers” (Callaghan 12)
• Characteristics of inquiry papers—begins with question at issue, suggests several answers, gives supporting reasons for each answer, evaluates the strengths of the answers, ends with a summary of what the writer learned
• Rhetoric—“the art of inquiring about a question at issue, and planning and presenting a good answer to another person” (Callaghan 34)
• Rhetorical strategy—“any decision made by a writer to make a message more effective” (Callaghan 37) “artful, purposeful choices a writer makes in the process of achieving effective communication with an audience” (90).
• Purposes for writing—to raise questions, inform or report, criticize, entertain, share an experience or feeling, challenge, explore, present discoveries, understand, introduce, imagine, support, sell, teach, relate ideas, prove, and persuade (Callaghan 43).
• Characteristics of personal writing—“subjective prospective, an open, exploratory or flexible form, descriptive detail, reflection and interpretation” (Callaghan 50)
• Characteristics of public writing—“authoritative, informed stance, explicit purpose, predictable form, information selected and arranged to facilitate engagement or comprehension” (Callaghan 51)
• Characteristics of academic writing—“a focus on the subject, a general audience within the writer’s discipline, a purpose that involves answering a specific question at issue, a thesis that is the writer’s answer, the voices of other creditable writers, careful reasoning and relevant evidence” (Callaghan 52)
• Conciseness—“summaries are significantly shorter than the original work” (Callaghan 70)
• Rhetorical context—setting or set of circumstances in which communication occurs (Callaghan 98)
• Ethos—ethical appeal; “relies on character of the speaker and appeals to readers’ value systems” (Callaghan 100)
• Pathos—emotional appeal; “relies on the feelings of readers and appeals to their emotions” (Callaghan 100)
• Logos—logical appeal; “appeals to readers’ intellect” (Callaghan 100)

Entry #11

From these comments I have learned that my prose choice is actually strong and helps provide to overall strength of my essays. I usually thought my prose was not all that strong, so I guess this shows that I was wrong. I had already known that my structure and flow of my writings were really strong. The majority of my papers from high school and last semester in my college classes had these comments or brief mention. My teachers and professors thought the organization of my papers were good, which made the papers easy to read and comprehend. I thought I did well with incorporating my two sources and did not see the need to gather anymore than two, especially since I only needed the sources from our Meeting of Minds book, but the comments said that gathering more sources would have been good for this paper. This caught me by surprise as I really did not expect to need more than two sources as I thought for this assignment I was only supposed to use the two case books as sources. One recommendation was to improve my transitions between paragraphs, which I plan to do by rereading my drafts and make sure the paragraphs flow properly. The second comment was to find more sources or incorporate the source material more, which I plan to do by either reading more information from the sources that I can use for evidence or I can do more research into my topics in order to gather more information

Entry #10

1) I have learned to make use of peer editing more than I already have, because it can be helpful to get different opinions on my writing since people will notice, or not notice, different things in my papers, which helps my writing.

2) I really have not learned anything new this semester in addition to things about writing that I already knew. I took AP Literature and Composition with a good teacher my senior year of high school, so I learned a lot about the writing process, and my writing has greatly improved thanks to that class and his teachings. In addition, I had learned how to use the library’s research resources last semester. The editing techniques I have used as well, so I plan to continue to use my previous knowledge in future courses.

3) The one thing I have learned from this semester is the different methods of rhetoric. However, I will be lucky if I remember the types 10 days after the final exam. I do not think I will remember anything from this class 10 years from now, except that my university required us to take a writing class that really did not help me much as a writer, so far at least.

4) I do not think I have changed as a writer, except I do try to get my writings done earlier, which means I am working on my procrastination when it comes to writing. Sometimes I cannot finish my writings early due to other commitment or homework, but I do at least plan to finish it ahead of time.

Entry #5

Up to this point, I have written two pages of Project 1. My writing does go onto the third page, but only by a few lines. However, I do know where I am going with the remaining two pages as I plan to address more of the economic aspects of having English as the official language of the United States. As for my progress in the writing process, I have already completed the thesis creation step and planning. I now am in the drafting stage as I write my paper and prepare it for peer editing. I think this progress is very appropriate as I am following the guidelines, and due dates, set forward for this project. In addition, I normally begin my drafting the night before the paper is due, so this progress is very appropriate compared to my normal writing process. The only thing I am confused about for this project is do I cite the casebook articles as works from an anthology or something. To help answer this, I can ask Professor Holmes, as well as possibly someone else from the class. I plan to continue explaining the different motivators for the push for a national language as well as finishing the rough draft as early as possible, not at 4:30 in the morning the day it is due, which should not be too hard to avoid considering I am already halfway finished. This is also my writing goals for Project 1.

Entry #4

I think the first passage, "Seeing the Forest FOR the Trees", is an example of personal writing. This is because the author provides a personal prospective of the trip to Guatemala. It also addresses more the issue itself, as well serves the purpose of giving information through descriptive details that cause the reader to experience the trip to Guatemala and formation of the NGO. Finally, it also shows why the experience had such a influence on the writer. I think the second passage is an example of academic writing because it focuses on one particular issue--voting in the 2000 election. Furthermore, it provides a thesis and then gives statistics about the question, which is relevant to the issue. The third passage is an example of public writing because the writer takes an informed stance on the novel. Furthermore, the writer includes information that help the reader comprehend that the writer changed her views.
I believe it is important to know the context and purpose of a piece of writing because it will allow writers to know what type of diction and tone to use for a specific audience and subject. This is also a way to determine what type of writing a piece is: look at the tone and diction that the author employs to determine whether its personal, public, or academic.

Entry #3

I believe my writing skills are not excellent, but they are not terrible either. The majority of the writings, which are normally only for academic assignments, receive B's or A's. Therefore, my writing, so I think, is not that terrible. Of course, I am sure that my writing could improve, and I think it would be in the technical side of writing. Therefore, my writing goals for this semester are to strengthen my academic writing by taking more time to write my papers instead of starting them at 10:30 the night before its due. This causes me not to have any time for revision or editing, which means I am not getting the grade I possibly could receive. Thus, another goal would be to learn more about the writing process so that I could give myself more time to follow the steps, at least roughly anyway. A personal goal would be to overcome my procrastination that causes me to start my writings so late, which causes me to forgo the writing process and skip just to writing, and how to conduct better research.

Entry #2

I believe that Elon requires all students to take English 110 College Writing because it offers students the opportunity to receive instruction on how Elon likes it students to write. By taking this course, students can also learn, and practice, the writing process, which will hopefully make writing seem less daunting and challenging. Hopefully, by taking English 110, students will also know how to make their writing stronger and better through guidance by the writing professor. In addition, this course can provide the basis for academic writing at Elon. The goal of Elon to train global citizens also can be furthered through English 110 in that if one's writing is strong, it can bring about great change in the world. However, if English 110 was not required by Elon, I do not think I would take it because I have had a great amount of experience with writing, and I have written many papers here at Elon. I also would rather focus on grammar and structure than the writing process, as those tend to be my weaknesses as a writer.

Entry #1

A previous writing experience that has influenced me is the multiple writing assignments that I had to complete while taking AP English Literature and Composition. These many writing assignments helped not only with my writing resume, but they provided experience for me. Prior to taking this class, I normally only wrote anywhere between three and four pieces during the school year. However, AP Lit caused me to have more writing beyond the normal final papers for classes. I normally had a 2-4 page paper due every two weeks, on average. Therefore, my writing skills increased as I learned to employ grammer properly and how my message could be written much more clearly and effectivly. This has changed me as a writer in the fact that my writing skills, in my opinion, and by my grades, have become better. I believe this because I got practice in the writing process of planning, writing, and editing as well as writing enough that it is not a major ordeal to write a paper. Hopefully, the skills I learned from these assignments will help me in my academic writing because I know how to write properly, or so I hope, and that I will learn even more writing skills to make my writing stronger and better. I also plan to begin writing earlier so that I have more time to revise and edit as many of my writings were done the night before and received poor grades on grammer and structure.

About Me

1. I am probably majoring in Biology with a minor in English.
2. I am from Canton, GA, which is north of Atlanta.
3. I have many favorite foods, but hamburgers are up there.
4. My favorite book or magazine is probably Paste because it's about music and includes a free sample CD.
5. I enjoy surfing the Internet, and wasting time, or playing sports. I also enjoying hanging out at the Georgia Aquarium during my free time at home.
6. I would like to travel to England and Australia.
7. In line with the food, I have many favorite movies, which would require a long list here so I'll spare you.
8 I have lived in Germany for a little over a month when I was seven.