GWell today is the day, my final blog post for my English Composition course. Wow, this semester didn't go as planned at all. But I am starting to realize that life doesn't always go as planned or how we hoped and we just have to roll with the punches. Nevertheless, I learned a lot and fell back in love with writing so that's all that matters. Okay enough of me getting all sentimental, let's get into the blog post. In this blog post, I will be reflecting on the past semester and all of the new and exciting (sometimes) things I have learned. To further help you understand what this blog post will be about, I will provide links to Reflective Writing and Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection.
G- Genre Awareness R- Rhetorical Awareness I- Identity as an Author T- Theory of writing T- Transfer of writing to future assignments This semester has made me fall back in love with writing. I remember as a kid, writing made up stories all day long which was basically just run on sentences because I was really young and didn't understand. By the time I went to high school, English was a subject that I resented and just wanted to be done with it and then college happened. English became fun again and not just something I did for a grade. I learned a lot about my author self in this course. One process that I will always remeber and will be able to carry with me for future references is, "Wheres DAT scene?" It's definitely weird to say out loud but it's something that is simple and easy to remember and it's important. I never truly understood what a memoir was and how it should be written. Description, Action, and Theme, three simple words that make a memoir. My memoir was easily the most fun and therapeutic for me to write. It brought that day to life and made me so thankful for where and who I am now. Everything that we learned up until I wrote the memoir made sense and just clicked. I can't really explain it but I was more genre aware when I wrote my memoir. Oh how one semester can go by in the blink of an eye and hold so much value and information. It was a weird semester but it was one for the books! Covid 19 sure knows how to spice things up. Well goodbye spring 2020 semester and goodbye English Composition I, thanks for everything!
1 Comment
In this blog post, I will be exploring an alternative ending to blog post #5. The "what ifs" of that scene. I also linked some of the hidden brain episodes and my narrative project webpage. I will be writing the scene as if my cousin Brianna would've died that day.
Rewinding & Rewriting: The Alternate Universes in Our Heads (NPR Hidden Brain Episode) Two Views of the River (Mark Twain) Kramer vs. Kramer: Action Scene (Shows/Deepens the Conflict) Kramer vs. Kramer: End-Resolution Scene What if my cousin died that day? I have thought about this scenario repeatedly after it happened. Going over in my head what would life be like without her. What would change? Would my life even change? What if my brother hadn’t of kicked her to get her heart beating again? “Can you help me add music to my myspace page?” “Yeah.” She answers with exhaustion. As her head flings back and her eyes roll to the back of her head. She drops to the floor and starts convulsing. This is it. I run for help with a blood curdling scream, “Help! Help! Help!” My uncle comes running down the stairs as me and my brother file behind him. I fall to the floor and cry out, “This is it. This is the last time I will see her alive.” She is still convulsing as my brother does the unthinkable, he kicks her. We stand there shaking not knowing what to do, shaking uncontrollably. We watch as she takes her last breath. I fall to the floor once again, but this time was different. I wrapped my arms around her tightly. My voice shaking and tears streaming down my face, “I love you. I am so sorry. I wish this never would’ve happened. I wish I had known. I am so so sorry.” In blog post #5, I will be creating an emotional scene from something that I have experienced in my life. For this blog post, we were asked to read My Name is Margaret and Hills Like White Elephants. “Can you help me add music to my myspace page?” I ask my cousin Brianna while sitting on top of the computer desk. “Yeah,” She answers with exhaustion. I turn to her as her eyes roll to the back of her head and her head flings back. She starts convulsing as she falls to the floor. Shaking uncontrollably unable to answer me. I jumped off the desk and let out a bloodcurdling scream “Help! Help! Help!” I run up the steps with each step feeling like a weight was pulling me back down. I finally get to the top trying to get out the words, “Brianna is having a seizure,” but all that came out was the scream that I have never heard or done before. My uncle races down the stairs along with me and my nine-year-old brother. I drop to the floor and shout “This is it. This is the last time I will see her alive.” As my Uncle tries to shake her, my brother kicks her. All the sudden, she opens her eyes and stands up. That kick we thought would do more damage, kick started her heart again. Wiping the tears from my eyes, “Oh my God, are you okay?” She was in a fog but answered, “What just happened?” Trying so hard to make sense of what just transpired was next to impossible. A thirteen-year-old girl who has never experienced something so traumatic and has no clue what a seizure even looks like trying to make sense of it all. In that moment, all I could think about was if today would be the last day I would get to hang out with my cousin who was older than me, but we were still so close. She walks up the stairs with me guiding her every move. My uncle hands her a glass of water as she picks up the phone to call my aunt. “Mom, I just had a seizure.” She says with exhaustion settling in again. She hands the phone to me. Words are failing me right now as I can’t explain something so traumatizing and unexplainable. My aunt answers, “I am on my way over, it’s okay. She’s okay.” In blog post number four, I will be creating my own writing process roundtable discussion with three writers, Don Murray, Mary Karr, and Anne Lamott. For insight into my writing process roundtable, I used these three readings Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product, Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision, and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | pp. 28 -34 | Short Assignments & Shitty First Drafts.
What started out as a normal Tuesday afternoon, turned interesting quick. I was on my way to school when I had the sudden urge for a French vanilla cappuccino from Wawa, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. It was a pretty nice day out even though we’re in the dead of winter. As I pulled in the parking lot, I saw three familiar looking people who just so happened to be Don Murray, Mary Karr, and Anne Lamott, sitting outside enjoying the unfamiliar winter weather. I got out of my car that was coincidentally parked right in front of them. They noticed me right away of course and called me over. They invited me to sit down and have a little chat with them. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to kill being that it was already 11:30 and my Psychology class started at 12:10 but I thought why not sit and talk to three of the most prominent writers, so I did. I said, “In high school, my English teachers were very strict with me when teaching me how to write. They made it seem like writing is one thing and one thing only.” Don Murray let out a chuckle and said, “This is not a question of correct or incorrect, of etiquette or custom. This is a matter of far higher importance. The writer, as he writes, is making ethical decisions. He doesn’t test his words by a rule book, but by life.” I answered, “So you’re saying that writing doesn’t have rules and instructions on how to write?” “E. L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving a car,” Anne Lamott chimed in, “You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.” I thought to myself well if writing is anything like driving a car, I’m doomed. Don Murray added, “Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness.” I quickly changed the subject, “How do you get in the mindset of writing?” Mary Karr quickly answered, “In the beginning, when there are zero pages, you have to cheer yourself into cranking stuff out, even if it later lands on the cutting room floor.” She continued, “writing is painful- it's “fun” only for novices, the very young, and hacks.” “That is very encouraging to hear,” I answered sarcastically. “Do you guys feel that writing first drafts is helpful or scary?” Murray answered, “Writing is the act of producing a first draft. It is the fastest part of the process, and the most frightening.” Mary added, “I can honestly say not one page I’ve ever published appears anywhere close to how it came out in the first draft.” I asked, “So how do you get through all of the constant doubts in your head about whether your first draft is going to be any good?” Anne begins, “What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.” She took a deep breath, “Quieting these voices is at least half the battle I fight daily. But this is better than it used to be. It used to be eighty-seven percent.” I let out a sigh of relief. It’s humbling to know that even the great writers struggle just like me. I looked at my phone and saw the time, I’m going to be late, but it was well worth it. Welcome to blog post number three! For this post, I read A Fable for the Living and I will be connecting it to my own letter to my author self. In A Fable for the Living, a woman is exchanging letters with her dead fiancé where he asks her to join him in heaven. I feel like this reading and my letter connected to each other with hope. The woman is hopeful in her reunion with her husband in heaven just like I am hopeful in re-building my relationship with my author-self this semester.
Dear Rhonda, I know you’re probably a little disappointed in me. It’s been a while since I have given you the attention you deserve. I remember in grade school; I would constantly write stories on my own without knowing how not to do run on sentences. A lot has changed since I was that little girl. I’ve gotten better with writing but was disconnected from you for years. Life has been crazy and busy these days. Some days I feel like the world is closing in on me and there’s nothing I can do to stop it, but you’ve always been there for me. Trying to stay positive can be a challenge for me and I feel like when I used to turn to you to talk to, it would calm me down. You let me get my thoughts out and rant all day long. I guess I just never truly realize it until it’s too late. You stand beside me screaming my name, but I don’t even look up. It’s like we made a pact to jump out of a plane together and at the very last second, I let go of your hand as I watch you fall out of the sky. I’m sorry for that. I understand the hurt you must feel now that our trust is broken. But I will make it up to you. On those stressful days, I will turn to you and carve out time to spend building our relationship again. On the good days, I will stop in and give you the 411 on just how good of a day it was. And lastly, I will work on putting you first on my list before my day gets too hectic and crazy. Actions speak louder than words, but I promise you will see a change in me. Sincerely, Jill Welcome to my second blog post everyone! Finally starting to get the hang of this whole website thing. This blog post will give you a lot of information on how to create your own website and what is most important when thinking about the content creating!
How to Create a Weebly Website (video tutorial) All Writing is Multimodal (Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton) It's All C.R.A.P: Four Principles of Design (Think Around Corners) Assessing Multimodal Student Work (Kent State University)
R stands for Repetition A stands for Alignment P stands for Proximity
2) The composition identifies a specific audience. 3) The composition employs a tone consistent with the designated purpose & audience. 4) The composition is organized around an appropriate controlling idea. 5) The composition uses transitions to guide the audience effectively from one set of ideas to another. 6) The composition synthesizes relevant information from research efforts with composer’s own ideas and arguments—in a way that increases the rhetorical effectiveness of the whole. 7) The composition uses detailed description, examples, sound, music, color, and/or word choice to convey ideas in an effective and appropriate way to the audience.
Hello and Welcome to my first blog post for my English Composition course. This is so weird and out of my comfort zone, but my author self has decided to just take that leap. In my first blog post, I will be answering The Proust Questionnaire. Get ready to learn some insightful things about myself.
__1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? The idea of perfect happiness, I believe is a myth. We all have fantasies of happiness of unrealistic things such as our dream home, money, and materialistic things. My idea of perfect happiness is being financially secure, living life the way that I want to, and not relying on anyone else for my happiness. __2.__What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear in life would have to be dying. The fear of being uncertain of where we go when we die and if we remember anything from our past life. And do we start a new life as someone or something else? These questions haunt me especially at night when my brain just won’t shut off. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The trait I most deplore in myself is judging people without knowing anything about them. It’s something that I try to work on daily because judging someone from the outside looking in is not fair to them. That old saying “never judge a book by it’s cover,” is one motto that everyone should live by. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? I hate liars. If you can’t be up front and honest with me then what is the point of a friendship? Even if it’s difficult to talk about, I would much rather have the truth than a lie. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? My cousin Brianna. She went into cardiac arrest at 16 and went into a coma for the next three months and suffered brain damage because of it. But even with all of that she has two beautiful boys, married to a great guy, and is thriving. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? I’m not really a materialistic person. And I don’t really spend money on myself all that much but when it comes to buying things for our foster babies, I would spend all my money on them whether it’s toys or clothes. __7.__What is your current state of mind? At the moment, I feel very content and motivated with how my life is progressing. I feel motivated for my future. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? __9.__On what occasion do you lie? I feel like I lie most in the heat of the moment in tense situations. I never want to hurt anyone which makes me more cautious about lying to those who I care about. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? This is a hard one for me. Everyone has their own insecurities but the one thing I dislike the most is my small hands/fingers. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? Pitbull. His voice and music just irks my soul for some reason that I can’t really explain. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? Genuine and family oriented. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “Is the dishwasher and washer off so I can shower?” My pet peeve is when the dishwasher/washer is on and no one tells me, so I walk into a freezing cold shower. __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? __16.__When and where were you happiest? This is a loaded question. I feel like I was the happiest in second and third grade. To be completely honest, being an adult sucks. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would change my height for sure. I wouldn’t want to be insanely tall but a decent height like 5’4. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? My family fosters two boys, David who’s one and Darien who’s two and a little girl in need of a liver. When the boys first came to us, they didn’t know much and never felt truly safe or loved. Over the next few months, I personally worked with Darien and each month he felt safer and finally said the words, “I love you.” That day was one I will never forget and is by far one of my greatest achievements so far. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? __21.__Where would you most like to live? I think about this all the time. I feel like it changes every day because I don’t know if I could deal with it being hot all the time but then again, the warm weather is a lot better than the cold. But I feel like living in Philly is a happy medium because we get each season. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? __24.__What is your favorite occupation? Working with kids. I worked at a daycare for three years before I decided to go back to school. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? __26.__What do you most value in your friends? __27.__Who are your favorite writers? __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? I would have to say my parents. They have been through so much with me since the day I was born but have always done what was best for me. They always make sure I am front and center when it comes to my health. Without their constant love and support, I wouldn’t have been able to make it through this life so far. __31.__What are your favorite names? Isabella and Noah __32.__What is it that you most dislike? __33.__What is your greatest regret? __34.__How would you like to die? Honestly, I don’t want to die but I know I will eventually. I would prefer to die in my sleep but who knows what God has in store for me. __35.__What is your motto? Be kind to everyone, you never know what battle others are fighting. |
Jillian ShepherdI use this blog to explore the messy processes of writing. Archives
May 2020
Categories |