When I was writing my Yoshino essay, I used different writing processes to incorporate into my writing. However, I do not think that this was one of my best writing but I was able to get words onto the page. As I read and annotated the article, I thought about the key ideas of the reading and how I can talk about it in my paper. Before we began the essay, we were to write about some of the key vocabulary and how it related to identity. Each day leading up the rough draft we were to complete this as homework. Then as I wrote the rough draft, I used the homework assignments to choose what was important to add to my paper. I added quotes into my essay and described my opinion on them. Next, I was paired up with two partners to review my essay. Doyle and Grace did a great job commenting on my work and telling me where I went wrong and what I need to add. After I reviewed their comments and added new ideas and quotes, I decided that I wanted to delete my introduction as I believed it did not find with the other paragraphs. I created a new introduction that talked about the idea of identity. Lastly, in class, I was paired up with Hannah to go over a checklist of things I need to add to my paper. In class, I read her paper and she read. mine out loud. We highlighted what we need to fix and or write more about. After that was done my paper got deleted, so I was unable to turn in the final draft of my paper. Throughout this semester, I will be writing more papers and with my mistakes from this one, I will be able to improve on my writing for the next ones.
integrating with other reflection
When it comes to writing papers my ability to integrate with others is poor. Throughout the essay, I do add quotes and paraphrases but they lack meaning. As I am reading, I choose quotes that I believe I can make a connection to or is important to the writing prompt. After reading what is considered integrating with others, I came to the conclusion that I need to get better and to do that I can review my rubrics from last semester. When I was writing the essay reflecting on Kenji Yoshino “the new civil rights”, I used his quotes as a way to describe new words, bring in other peoples point of views, and to direct the conversation in another direction. As I wrote the essay, I used quotes from Yoshino and other people that we mentioned in the article but adding quotation marks. I would then either reflect on the quote by adding my ideas. And for definitions, I would use their definition in quotation marks and after I would describe the word in my own words and what I think the word meant. In this article, I did not pay attention to adding signal phrases and voice markers. I know that it is important. On my next essay, I will make sure to look at Habits of the Creative Mind and They Say/ I Say in order to improve my writing. Below I was going to add two examples of how I integrated with others. However, my essay got deleted so I was unable to. For my integrating with others I gave myself a NY. I gave myself this score because I believe that I added information from the text but I did not do as well as I could of.
Quotes:
One example that supports that is that if you’re a woman you need to wear makeup as it is an “essential” part of being a woman. He believes that “woman was given the liberty right to elaborate her own gender identity in ways that did not impinge on her job performance, she would be protected from demands to be either more ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.” (paragraph 32).
He defines it as “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream” (Preface).
Later in the article, Yoshino defines liberty paradigm as ” to protect the authentic self” and equality paradigm as “essentializing the identities it protects”.
Identity
Everyone has identities, some they are proud of and others they aren’t. Identities may represent who you are and where you come from. People hide their identities so they do not have to face social comments. Throughout history people have hid their identity so that they would not have gotten shamed, beaten, given less right and even murdered. Over a third of LGBTQ people hide their identity at work out of fear of discrimination.
Kenji Yoshino, an Asian American civil rights lawyer who is an open homosexual writes as article “The new Civil Rights”. He talks about how the law does not protect us from some things that are important. In his article he talks about covering. He defines it as “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream” (Preface). Many of those who know that the civil rights do not protect them cover themselves from who they really are. People use covering as a way to hide your sexuality, ethnicity when changing name, disabilities, etc. Many of those who cover their identity do it to avoid judgments and harmful comments.
In the article Yoshino mentions D.W. Winniscott, who explains what True self and False self are. True Self is the self that gives and individual the feeling of being real. When False Self is an individual the feeling of being unreal. One positive function of the false self gives is that one who is false to self is aware of their boundaries. Winnicott explains how “in the healthy individual, the False Self is reduced to a “polite and mannered social attitude,” a tool available to the fully realized True Self.” In my opinion I believe that your true self will help cover who your false self really is.
Later in the article Yoshino defines liberty paradigm as ” to protect the authentic self” and equality paradigm as “essentializing the identities it protects”. As he describes in the article that he believes that liberty paradigm will protect our true self. Liberty protects who we are and who we want to be. However, equality identifies us as what gender we are. One example that supports that is that if you’re a woman you need to wear makeup as it is an “essential” part of being a woman. He believes that “woman was given the liberty right to elaborate her own gender identity in ways that did not impinge on her job performance, she would be protected from demands to be either more ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.” (paragraph 32).
One group in society that has to hide their true self is those who are transgender. In the article, it does not talk about this, but it is something that people face a problem with every day. They have to hide who they are from the people around them to feel accepted. They use a way of ‘covering’ to hide from who they really are. Many of those who are transgender cannot get a job people will judge and stereotype them. I believe that no matter your gender identification or your sexuality, you should always have rights that support you.
nutshell draft
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil rights movement began. This law was put into place for blacks to gain equal rights under the law of the United states. In the United States, the Civil rights law has always been a problem. The civil rights law states “the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality. This law gives people the right to be free, equal and fair treatment in society. The civil rights may protect US citizens is many ways. However, it doesn’t not protect those that are importantly the same. It does not protect those who are homosexual and disabled. Th rights lean towards those who are black, when there is other things that are important that people should be protected by.
Kenji Yoshino, a homosexual civil rights lawyer writes as article on how the law does not protect us from some things that are important. In his article he talks about covering. He defines it as “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream” (Preface). Many of those who know that the civil rights do not protect them cover themselves from who they really are. People use covering as a way to hide your sexuality, ethnicity when changing name, disabilities, etc. Many of those who cover their identity do it to avoid judgments and harmful comments. In the article Yoshino mentions D.W. Winniscott, who explains what True self and False self are. True Self is the self that gives and individual the feeling of being real. When False Self is an individual the feeling of being unreal. One positive function of the false self gives is that one who is false to self is aware of their boundaries. Winnicott explains how “in the healthy individual, the False Self is reduced to a “polite and mannered social attitude,” a tool available to the fully realized True Self.”
Later in the article Yoshino defines liberty paradigm as ” to protect the authentic self” and equality paradigm as “essentializing the identities it protects”. As he describes in the article that he believes that liberty paradigm will protect our true self. Liberty protects who we are and who we want to be. However, equality identifies us as what gender we are. One example that supports that is that if you’re a woman you need to wear makeup as it is an “essential” part of being a woman. He believes that “woman was given the liberty right to elaborate her own gender identity in ways that did not impinge on her job performance, she would be protected from demands to be either more ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.” (paragraph 32).
One group in society that has to hide their true self is those who are transgender. In the article, it does not talk about this, but it is something that people face a problem with every day. They have to hide who they are from the people around them to feel accepted. They use a way of ‘covering’ to hide from who they really are. Many of those who are transgender cannot get a job people will judge and stereotype them. I believe that no matter your gender identification or your sexuality, you should always have rights that support you.
Essay Two Prewriting
In the article, Yoshino defines liberty paradigm as ” to protect the authentic self” and equality paradigm as “essentializing the identities it protects”. As he describes in the article that he believes that liberty paradigm will protect our true self. Liberty protects who we are and who we want to be. However, equality identifies us as what gender we are. One example that supports that is that if you’re a woman you need to wear makeup as it is an “essential” part of being a woman. He believes that “woman was given the liberty right to elaborate her own gender identity in ways that did not impinge on her job performance, she would be protected from demands to be either more ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.” (paragraph 32).
One group in society that has to hide their true self is those who are transgender. In the article, it does not talk about this but it is something that people face a problem with every day. They have to hide who they are from the people around them to feel accepted. They use a way of ‘covering’ to hide from who they really are. Many of those who are transgender cannot get a job people will judge and stereotype them. I believe that no matter your gender identification or your sexuality, you should always have rights that support you.
Essay Two Prewriting
January 29, 2019
Kenji Yoshino defines covering as “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream,”. Yoshino covers himself as he is a gay civil right lawyer. He believes that he needs to hide that his sexuality because of his job. Everyone covers no matter their circumstances. Yoshino gives examples of what people cover, they are: covering ethnicity when changing the name, your sexuality, covering disabilities, etc. From what I have read, I have conducted my own definition of covering. Covering when a person hides something about them from the community to avoid harmful judgments and comments. One example that I can relate to covering is if someone was transgender. They would hide it from everyone around them. Yoshino and my definition of covering are different and the same. He connects covering to fit into the mainstream. I connect it to fitting into the community. Those two are connected in many ways.
In the article D.W. Winnicott, explains what True and False Self is. He talks about how they are connected in many ways. True Self is the self that gives an individual the feeling of being real and False Self is the self that gives an individual the feeling of being unreal. One positive function of the false self is that one who is false to self is aware of their boundaries. Winnicott explains how “in the healthy individual, the False Self is reduced to a “polite and mannered social attitude,” a tool available to the fully realized True Self.”
A Toast Story Prewriting
In A Toast Story, the author talks about many different cafes in the San Fransico area that serve fancy toast. He visited one cafe called Trouble. After his visit, he decided to meet the owner, Giulietta Carrelli. She talked about how growing up she was raised in an immigrant family. Her father was a tailor from Italy and her mother was an ex-nun. This identifies her as Italian and someone who grew up in an immigrant family. After Carrelli talked to the author about the cafe and why it is the way it is she then made her way into talking about her life and how the cafe came to be. Carrelli talked about however since high school she has had schizoaffective disorder. This has caused her many ups and downs throughout her life. This plays a part in identity. She identifies as having this disorder because it affects who she is. She then began to talk about how she was homeless and jobless. These two things identify her too. She would get identified into two categorized, which are homeless and unemployed. As the article goes on talking about Trouble and Carrelli’s life, they pointed out many different things that identify her. As I was reading some quotes stuck out to me and explained why she set up her cafe as she did. Trouble is set up so that there is no seating and many of the customers gather outside of the storefront to enjoy their coffee and toast. She explained that she set this up as a “sociological experiment in engineering spontaneous communication between strangers”(paragraph 24). She wants her customers to communicate with each other even if they do not know each other. At her cafe, she sells coconuts to her customers. When I read this I was very interested to learn why this is. Later on, as I was reading she explained ” I did a study in New York and San Franciso, standing on the same street corner holding a sandwich, saying hello to people. no one would talk to me. But id I was standing on the same street corner and I was holding a coconut? People would engage”(Paragraph 24). This shows that when people are next to strangers they may not engage with them unless they are doing or have something that is unique.
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Let’s Write
January 28, 2019
People tend to hide from their identity when they feel ashamed or embarrassed by it. One example of this would be if someone identified as homosexual. Many people who are homosexual hide this identity from others to not feel as they are different and or not welcomed. Over time of hiding an identity can cause someone to mentally be not stable. when all those emotions are kept in at some point your going to break. Yours are hiding who you really are and that may cause you to not even know who you are anymore. I have found a correlation between people who keep their identity in and suicide. Keeping in your emotions can lead to that and that is very sad from my point. Society will gain more hateful comments with someone holds in their identity in. Another example of this is if someone in your family is hiding an identity that they are homosexual, your family might make jokes toward that subject. However, if that continues society make lose a person. Many people around us may hold an identity and until they embrace it, you will never know. They live with this guilt of who they are and why they are like this.
January 18, 2019
When you think about a name or even that person you think about their identity. Identity is the characteristics that make up one individual. Some people have the same and others may look alike. However, their identity is what makes them different and all unique. Identities are very important because no human being is the same, we all are different. Identities help categorized each individual. Identity can be expressed as mom, dad, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, coach, etc. Not all of us have the same identity. That is why it is important to express our identity.
The Story of My Name
When people ask me what my name is and I say Alivia with an A they always say “that is so pretty”. Some people even ask “how did your parents pick that name?”. Before I was born, my mom was dedicated to naming me, Mackenzie. She loved that name however when my mom was in labor, my aunt brought up the name Alivia. She said she thought it was very pretty and when you pronouce Olivia, you pronouce the O as an A. By the time I was born my mom ended up loving the name. My name has no real meaning to my family. However, my name middle name is what is meaningful. My middle name is Jean, which is also my great-grandmothers name, my grandmother’s middle name, my aunt’s middle name, and my middle name. My aunt who got married into the family moms first name is Jean. so that means that my aunt’s middle name and my cousin’s middle name too is Jean. Someday when I have a daughter, I will have her middle name Jean so that I can keep it in the family and I hope that she will do the same. Back to the name Alivia, from that my friends and family mostly call me Liv or Livvy. I liked having nicknames because it means that the person who calls me has a close relationship with me. My name means more to me than others. I like it because and is unique. Many people do not have the same name as me. Never have I ever thought that I wanted a different name because it means to me. Names are more than just a name, it identifies and defines you as a person.
Habits of the Creative Mind Essay
Alivia Shattuck
November 26, 2018
Throughout elementary, middle and high school, you are taught to read and write a certain way. However, once you come to college those all change. As I went through school, I was taught to write a paper in five paragraphs, include a thesis statement, mainly is focused on one question and using one approach. For reading, I was to read a book or paper and either retain the information or answer a few questions. Once I came college that all changed. In college, reading and writing is very different and much more difficult. For writing in college, you much approach the topic with different views, ask and answer questions throughout the writing, respond in detail, and write as many paragraphs as you want. And for reading, you must digest, annotate, ask questions, write key information, and complete many assignments on the reading.
As I entered College reading and writing 1, I did not know what to expect. I knew that it was going to be difficult for me. Once we began writing our first paper, I had a hard time stay away from my high school writing habits. I expected that at the beginning I was going to need help grasping the new information but by the end of the semester, I would be able to write a paper with few corrections and no help. As I am ending the semester, I have come to the conclusion that my expectations were not accurate. I am on my way to becoming a better writer, but I still need help from my professor and my peers. As they read my papers and make correction, I am able to understand where I went wrong and how I can improve. The habits I learned from reading and writing helped me in my other classes too. If I needed help on a paper, I would refer to the book Habits of the Creative Mind to help me with my paper. The authors Miller and Jurecic, describe the habits as “curiosity, attentiveness, openness, flexibility, reflectiveness, persistence, and creativity”. Their habits help to engage the reader in their own reading and writer. They describe the habits in the chapter Orienting: “Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world”, “Openness- the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world”, Flexibility- the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.”, “Persistence- the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.”, and “Creativity- the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas”.
When it came time to reading and digesting my first article, I struggled. I would underline and circle a few things. However, I later learned that I was supposed to do more. Now by the end of the semester, I am able to annotation, ask questions, highlight important details, create voice markers, and many more. When it comes to class reading or reading on my own, I have become a stronger reader. Miller and Jurecic, point out a great view. They say “In order to learn to write, you have to learn how to read as a writer. There’s only one way to learn how to
read well, and that’s by rereading”. Having to leave my old “rules” was difficult for me but in my opinion, I am starting to move in the correct direction of becoming a better writer.
As I look through my past work in class, I realized that I had many goals in order to become a better reader and writer. On August 31, 2018, I write three goals for myself. They were: “1. Get away from my normal style of writing, 2. Everything has the potential to be exciting, and 3. Use creativity.” In this journal entry, I used a quote from Miller and Jurecic and it said, “Many writers are boring their readers, but everything has the potential to amuse someone”. I have learned that this is true. Many things I have written have been “boring” but if I had a few key information it can amuse my readers. As I read through my writing log, journal entries, and my past informal essays, I noticed a pattern. At the beginning, my goals were small and not in detail. Now, as I am approaching the end of the semester, my goals have grown and are in details.
As I went throughout the semester, I had many growths regarding my reading process, writing process, and integrating ideas with others. For my reading process, I had a large growth. As I am looking at my papers, I see that I got all “Not Yet” at the beginning of the year. I struggled with understanding that reading is inseparable from writing. I was unable to connect two texts together, view how writers approach situations and seek important information. For annotations, I had a difficult time keeping a running summary, take notes, record reader, ask questions, and I was only sticking to the “easy” way of annotating. For writing process, I got many more “Not Yet”. I had a hard time engaging in the conversation. I needed to use voices to implement ideas of others and have game-changing ideas. As I went throughout the steps of writing a paper, I did not take revision as an essential part of writing. Also, when it came time to use critical analysis of my work to rethink and develop the complexity of my Ideas, I struggled. I needed to plan changes from received feedback, go beyond the comments from others when revising, elaborate existing evidence, and embrace new ideas. Next, for integrating ideas with others, I got many more “Not Yet”.
When it came to writing my papers I was unable to embed words correctly into my papers. I needed to use they say I say to help me connect my passages, accurately represent borrowed passages, use signal phrases, react to borrowed sentences (spotlight, explain, translate, analyze, interpret, apply, build on, question, complicate, criticize, and reject), use blockquotes appropriately, and have a work cited page. As I review my papers from the beginning, I net moved onto the papers from recently. I have come to the conclusion that I have grown in this class. For my reading process, I got many “good” and “OK”. I was able to see how writers connect to a network of conversations, record the reader, ask questions see how writers improve understanding and keep a running summary of the reading. Then for writing process, I did much better. I was able to use informal writing to make connections, approach revision to develop new ideas, go beyond the comments to revise my paper, rework sections to clarify new ideas, and embrace new ideas that evolve over time. Lastly for, integrating ideas with others, I still got many “Not Yet”. Some things did improve; however, some stayed the same. Something growth was seen, was that I was able to bring out the meaning of words, use background information, choosing relevant passages, and embedding words of others into my sentences. Overall, as I finished looking at my paper, I realized that I have growth throughout the last couple of months.
While reading and writing, I had to learn to attempt my weakness into my projects. While I was writing my papers, I would look back at my rubric to make sure that I am included all the needed information. Using this has helped me become a stronger writer. I also would look at my past writing assignment and the comments to see what I did wrong on those and how I will not make that mistake on my next writing assignment. When it came to reading, I made to rely back on my rubrics in order to have advanced annotations. Now when I read things for other class, I always make sure to have that paper with me, so I can refer back to it when I am struggling.
The only way to become better at something is to learn from your mistakes. Learning from your mistakes will help you to achieve your goals. As I went throughout the semester, I learned from my mistakes to become a better reader and writing. As I wrote my papers, I would look at my comments from my peers and professor on my past writing assignments on what I can do better. What I learned in class or writing lab, I would use those strategies on my assignments. As I will be taking a writing class my second semester, I found ways that I can learn from my mistake in order to become a better reader and writer. I will use my rubrics, past assignments, and feedback from my professors and peers. This helps to find what I need to approve on. As I reviewed my feedback, I have found things that I will need to improve on my reading and writing. When it comes to reading, I will need to improve on my annotation and summaries of the content. Next time I annotate, I will add notes, questions, underlining and assumptions. While I am making the annotations, I will keep a running summary of the information. For writing, I will need to get away from my high school habits and focus more on college writing. I will look at my rubrics and comments to improve.
As the year went on, my reading and writing patterns changed, which I am not proud of. When it came to assignments, I would do really good on it and then the next one I would not finish through. For next semester, I will make sure to complete all my assignments with the best of my ability. When it comes to class time, I will make sure to be attentive and engage more into the conversation.
Alivia Shattuck
November 26, 2018
Throughout elementary, middle and high school, you are taught to read and write a certain way. However, once you come to college those all change. As I went through school, I was taught to write a paper in five paragraphs, include a thesis statement, mainly is focused on one question and using one approach. For reading, I was to read a book or paper and either retain the information or answer a few questions. Once I came to college that all changed. In college, reading and writing are very different and much more difficult. For writing in college, you much approach the topic with different views, ask and answer questions throughout the writing, respond in detail, and write as many paragraphs as you want. And for reading, you must digest, annotate, ask questions, write key information, and complete many assignments on the reading.
As I entered College reading and writing 1, I did not know what to expect. I knew that it was going to be difficult for me. Once we began writing our first paper, I had a hard time stay away from my high school writing habits. I expected that at the beginning I was going to need help grasping the new information but by the end of the semester, I would be able to write a paper with few corrections and no help. As I am ending the semester, I have come to the conclusion that my expectations were not accurate. I am on my way to becoming a better writer, but I still need help from my professor and my peers. As they read my papers and make correction, I am able to understand where I went wrong and how I can improve. The habits I learned from reading and writing helped me in my other classes too. If I needed help on a paper, I would refer to the book Habits of the Creative Mind to help me with my paper. The authors Miller and Jurecic, describe the habits as “curiosity, attentiveness, openness, flexibility, reflectiveness, persistence, and creativity”. Their habits help to engage the reader in their own reading and writer. They describe the habits in the chapter Orienting: “Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world”, “Openness- the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world”, Flexibility- the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.”, “Persistence- the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.”, and “Creativity- the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas”.
When it came time to reading and digesting my first article, I struggled. I would underline and circle a few things. However, I later learned that I was supposed to do more. Now by the end of the semester, I am able to annotation, ask questions, highlight important details, create voice markers, and many more. When it comes to class reading or reading on my own, I have become a stronger reader. Miller and Jurecic, point out a great view. They say “In order to learn to write, you have to learn how to read as a writer. There’s only one way to learn how to
read well, and that’s by rereading”. Having to leave my old “rules” was difficult for me but in my opinion, I am starting to move in the correct direction of becoming a better writer.
As I look through my past work in class, I realized that I had many goals in order to become a better reader and writer. On August 31, 2018, I write three goals for myself. They were: “1. Get away from my normal style of writing, 2. Everything has the potential to be exciting, and 3. Use creativity.” In this journal entry, I used a quote from Miller and Jurecic and it said, “Many writers are boring their readers, but everything has the potential to amuse someone”. I have learned that this is true. Many things I have written have been “boring” but if I had a few key information it can amuse my readers. As I read through my writing log, journal entries, and my past informal essays, I noticed a pattern. At the beginning, my goals were small and not in detail. Now, as I am approaching the end of the semester, my goals have grown and are in details.
As I went throughout the semester, I had many growths regarding my reading process, writing process, and integrating ideas with others. For my reading process, I had a large growth. As I am looking at my papers, I see that I got all “Not Yet” at the beginning of the year. I struggled with understanding that reading is inseparable from writing. I was unable to connect two texts together, view how writers approach situations and seek important information. For annotations, I had a difficult time keeping a running summary, take notes, record reader, ask questions, and I was only sticking to the “easy” way of annotating. For writing process, I got many more “Not Yet”. I had a hard time engaging in the conversation. I needed to use voices to implement ideas of others and have game-changing ideas. As I went throughout the steps of writing a paper, I did not take revision as an essential part of writing. Also, when it came time to use critical analysis of my work to rethink and develop the complexity of my Ideas, I struggled. I needed to plan changes from received feedback, go beyond the comments from others when revising, elaborate existing evidence, and embrace new ideas. Next, for integrating ideas with others, I got many more “Not Yet”. When it came to writing my papers I was unable to embed words correctly into my papers. I needed to use they say I say to help me connect my passages, accurately represent borrowed passages, use signal phrases, react to borrowed sentences (spotlight, explain, translate, analyze, interpret, apply, build on, question, complicate, criticize, and reject), use block quotes appropriately, and have a work cited page. As I review my papers from the beginning, I net moved onto the papers from recently. I have come to the conclusion that I have grown in this class. For my reading process, I got many “good” and “OK”. I was able to see how writers connect to a network of conversations, record the reader, ask questions see how writers improve understanding and keep a running summary of the reading. Then for writing process, I did much better. I was able to use informal writing to make connections, approach revision to develop new ideas, go beyond the comments to revise my paper, rework sections to clarify new ideas, and embrace new ideas that evolve over time. Lastly for, integrating ideas with others, I still got many “Not Yet”. Some things did improve; however, some stayed the same. Something growth was seen, was that I was able to bring out the meaning of words, use background information, choosing relevant passages, and embedding words of others into my sentences. Overall, as I finished looking at my paper, I realized that I have growth throughout the last couple of months.
While reading and writing, I had to learn to attempt my weakness into my projects. While I was writing my papers, I would look back at my rubric to make sure that I am included all the needed information. Using this has helped me become a stronger writer. I also would look at my past writing assignment and the comments to see what I did wrong on those and how I will not make that mistake on my next writing assignment. When it came to reading, I made to rely back on my rubrics in order to have advanced annotations. Now when I read things for other class, I always make sure to have that paper with me, so I can refer back to it when I am struggling.
Alivia Shattuck
November 26, 2018
Throughout elementary, middle and high school, you are taught to read and write a certain way. However, once you come to college those all change. As I went through school, I was taught to write a paper in five paragraphs, include a thesis statement, mainly is focused on one question and using one approach. For reading, I was to read a book or paper and either retain the information or answer a few questions. Once I came to college that all changed. In college, reading and writing are very different and much more difficult. For writing in college, you much approach the topic with different views, ask and answer questions throughout the writing, respond in detail, and write as many paragraphs as you want. And for reading, you must digest, annotate, ask questions, write key information, and complete many assignments on the reading.
As I entered College reading and writing 1, I did not know what to expect. I knew that it was going to be difficult for me. Once we began writing our first paper, I had a hard time staying away from my high school writing habits. I expected that at the beginning I was going to need help grasping the new information but by the end of the semester, I would be able to write a paper with few corrections and no help. As I am ending the semester, I have come to the conclusion that my expectations were not accurate. I am on my way to becoming a better writer, but I still need help from my professor and my peers. As they read my papers and make correction, I am able to understand where I went wrong and how I can improve. The habits I learned from reading and writing helped me in my other classes too. If I needed help on a paper, I would refer to the book Habits of the Creative Mind to help me with my paper. The authors Miller and Jurecic, describe the habits as “curiosity, attentiveness, openness, flexibility, reflectiveness, persistence, and creativity”. Their habits help to engage the reader in their own reading and writer. They describe the habits in the chapter Orienting: “Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world”, “Openness- the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world”, Flexibility- the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.”, “Persistence- the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.”, and “Creativity- the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas”.
When it came time to reading and digesting my first article, I struggled. I would underline and circle a few things. However, I later learned that I was supposed to do more. Now by the end of the semester, I am able to annotation, ask questions, highlight important details, create voice markers, and many more. When it comes to class reading or reading on my own, I have become a stronger reader. Miller and Jurecic, point out a great view. They say “In order to learn to write, you have to learn how to read as a writer. There’s only one way to learn how to
read well, and that’s by rereading”. Having to leave my old “rules” was difficult for me but in my opinion, I am starting to move in the correct direction of becoming a better writer.
As I look through my past work in class, I realized that I had many goals in order to become a better reader and writer. On August 31, 2018, I write three goals for myself. They were: “1. Get away from my normal style of writing, 2. Everything has the potential to be exciting, and 3. Use creativity.” In this journal entry, I used a quote from Miller and Jurecic and it said, “Many writers are boring their readers, but everything has the potential to amuse someone”. I have learned that this is true. Many things I have written have been “boring” but if I had a few key information it can amuse my readers. As I read through my writing log, journal entries, and my past informal essays, I noticed a pattern. In the beginning, my goals were small and not in detail. Now, as I am approaching the end of the semester, my goals have grown and are in details.
