The Final Blog!

Throughout the semester my thoughts about writing have remained significantly the same. I had not written anything in a long while though so the class sort of re-sparked that interest for me. I believe although my writing style and my ideas about writing have remained the same it has been a good class for me because it has reminded me how much I love to write.

Revised Revision

I'm glad I chose the piece I did and am very proud of how it turned out. My piece was very easy for me to write because it was such a good experience for me when it happened. It was the story of how I met my best friend so obviously it's something I hold close to my heart. I don't get to see her very often so there weren't many ways to elaborate how much we mean to each other even though we do keep in contact constantly. I think my paper showed very well the close bond we share and explained how it came about. In the end I was very proud of my paper.

Revision Piece

For my revision piece I chose a piece of writing about how little moments can change your life. I chose this piece because it gave me a chance to write about something I know. I chose to write about how I met my best friend. We have only spent two weeks together in person. I roomed with her for a week my junior year at a camp at CMU and she quickly became my best friend. In my paper I told the story of little things that happened over that week, then about how we stayed in touch throughout the year and roomed together my senior year at the same camp. This paper was very easy to write because it wasn't something I had to research or really think about, it was just something I knew and it started out as a stream of consciousness piece and then I refined it to make it more readable. I think it turned out very well.

Family & Writing

I have been writing since I was very young. It is something that has always been of interest to me. My dad absolutely loves it when I write. In fact, he has been so deprived of my writing lately that he has resorted to reading my blogs. He is not much of a writer himself but he does love to read. He reads more then I do most of the time, which is quite impressive actually. He used to tell my sister and I that we should publish childrens books for our side jobs. She is the artist in the family and loves to draw, though she has never caught onto the whole writing craze that I enjoy. She has been known to dabble in reading though on occasion. My mother has always encouraged both of us, though she has never really been into either drawing, writing, or reading. She supports both of our talents and on occasion proofreads some of my work.

Reflection

I think overall my short project went very well. I got all of the information I wanted into it and managed to get it to come across the way I wanted; informative but not research-like. The Q and A magazine article format went over nicely also. I think my subject of hiccups was quite difficult to portray any other way, unless I wanted a forty-five minute long movie on random people hiccuping, this didn't seem like a good idea to me.

Short Project

I am currently working on a short project based off of my research essay. I decided for my project to do a magazine Q and A article. This seemed to be the best way to go because the hiccups are a very common thing but not many people know that much about them and so while sitting in a waiting room flipping through the articles some people may be compelled to learn just a little bit more about them. Also, magazine articles are often found online so people who use a search engine to look up hiccups could easily find the information. This article will have standard Q and A format, will be understandable for the average person, and easily accessible.

Research Paper

My research essay turned out interestingly to say the least. I think I am most proud of the fact that I managed to get an eight page paper out of commonalities of various hiccup remedies. It was such an abstract topic but I chose it because of the challenge it gave me and am very excited that I did it. I think that I could have worked on my methods section a little better but I still am quite proud of that section too. This essay taught me a lot about my writing style; although I am not a natural research paper writer I can do it if I set my mind to it. 

Looking Back

Looking back at my argument essay on the reliability of Wikipedia I think I did really well. Rereading the paper and taking in my instructors comments I realize there were a few things that I could have done to make the paper better, however, overall I am very pleased with it.
I thought I stayed very true to my audience with one minor slip up that wasn't really that important in my opinion. I also really like how I decided to organize it. At first, I didn't like how it read but now as I look back I realize it was the best way to go, with each of my sections distinctly different but transitioned appropriately. Overall I am very pleased with how my paper turned out.

Academic writing has never been my favorite thing. To me writing is something that comes easy when I know what I want to say. I love to write and love how it makes me feel when I write something that I really like and am proud of. However, in academic writing I don't quite get that feeling. It's so stiff and orderly., there is no room for any realness.
I do like how academic writing challenges me though. I have never gotten used to the structure of academic writing so it seems awkward to me. It pushes me to experiment and expand my writing ability. Even if it is against my will.

Researching

When researching often the first place I go to is Google. I try to find websites that relate directly to what I am researching and are as credible as I can manage so that my information is not just random bits taken from different sites. I also spend a bit of time in the library looking for real books on my topic of research if I need more information to fill out or clarify my paper.
This is very similar to how I would look up something just for my own benefit. I would not probably go to the library however unless I found it absolutely necessary.
I believe my academic research is pretty effective. It gets me information that normally thoroughly covers my topic. It is kind of stressful sometimes though, when resources become scarce and I am running of time and information.

Revisiting

Normally I have a hard time going back and revising my essays. However, as soon as I sat down with my essay almost a week later I realized revising it was going to be a breeze. I had made so many mistakes and left so much out of my original draft that I couldn't figure out what I had been thinking when I originally written it. Obviously I had had an off day. The help that I got from my peer editing group helped a lot to. There were a lot of comments made on my essay that I never would have though about, but after having them pointed out to me I could see where my essay could use improvement.

Reliability of Wikipedia

While writing an essay on the reliability of Wikipedia. I started having writers block. This is a new concept for me. Ordinarily, once I get an idea into my head I can write for long periods of time without stopping. However, last night I had to keep stopping mid sentence where I either had forgotten my words or just ran out of words to write. I finally struggled through my last paragraph though, finally finished. I printed my essay off, stapled it, put it in my folder, and feel into a deep sleep, where I continued to dream about my essay.

The Toast

At my sisters wedding I was lucky enough that she chose me as her maid of honor. I have looked up to my sister since I was very little. I was so excited that we had a special enough connection that I could share in her special day in such an important position. I have always loved writing so the toast was no big deal to me. I put it off until the last minute and just wrote exactly how I felt. Right before I gave my speech I read it for a couple close family members and brought them to tears over the phone. Then I had to read it for real. I will never forget the look on my family's face as I read my speech. Nor will I forget that when I finished my sister had tears pouring down her face. She is the only sister I have and I enjoy ever moment I spend with her. Sharing this information with her is something I had never done before and I was so glad that I could add that much more to her special day. This was definitely the proudest I had ever been of anything I had ever written and thinking back I would not change one word.

Achievement of Good Grades

In my experience good grades mean that I have put my best effort into my work. My knowledge that I had striven to gain has carried me through and helped me reach my goals. They mean that I care about my success as a college student and about my future after college. My grades help to demonstrate to myself and to others that I am hardworking, determined, and goal oriented. I tried my best and achieved all that I could.