Thlog #8- The Countdown Begins.

WP-3 is done, and I am the happiest of campers. Don’t get me wrong though, WP-3 has been the most enjoyable WP thus far. The concept of translating genres was cool, my topic was interesting (to me, at least), and my new genres were unique (honestly, I think what I really enjoyed was the illustration part of it, I finally got the opportunity to use my Super Swag 30ct. pack of Crayola Twistable Colored Pencils-- have I made you jealous yet?). So though it took me hours to complete, and by 4:30 AM on Wednesday morning I looked like this:

it was definitely worth it because I had a lot of fun doing it, and the end result is something that I am pretty proud of-- but hopefully my passion for this assignment ‘translates’ into a good grade too. Now that our final WP is complete, it’s time to face the Boss: the Portfolio. When I first cha cha cha checked out the assignment description and everything we had to do/include, I was like omg this is going to be rough times, but the more I’m reading over it, the better I feel. With Zack’s comments, I think revising our WPs is going to be a walk in the park (*knock on wood*), and I have a pretty good idea of how I am going to write my reflection.

 It’s hard to believe that this class is almost drawing to a close. Writing classes usually make me want bang my head on a desk, so to say I came in with mixed feelings is a bit of an understatement, but now I am already thinking about how much I am going to miss it. :(

Is it getting dusty in here? No? Just me? Alright y’all, well I’m going to go work on gathering info about complete sentences for Monday’s presentation, so I'll catch ya later, thanks for reading~

Thlog #7- Lost in Translation?

This week I felt what Atlas would have felt if the heavens had been lifted off his shoulders, because WP-2 has been graded and surprisingly enough, I did not fail. *wipes away stray tear*

As I had mentioned in my previous thlog, I had been feeling beyond overwhelmed with the prompt, and I wasn't even sure if I had answered it correctly. Zack gave me some really good feedback, and the main critiques he made were concerning my organization and my topic sentences. For my WP-2, I tried mixing it up and instead of structuring my paper by 1st source, 2nd source, 3rd source and then including my analysis with each, I organized it by 1st idea, 2nd idea, etc., then weaving in the sources as I go. As I did this, I tried to incorporate some insights about ‘moves’ as well, but I don’t think I included enough, and it came out sounding like an afterthought. In addition to this, Zack thought my topic sentences needed some work, so for my WP-3, I am going to try to create topic sentences that have more direction and are super clear about what the following paragraph is going to be about. Overall, I am really happy about my grade on this WP. It was significantly better than my WP-1, so hopefully this pattern of improvement will continue with my WP-3.

Speaking of WP-3, the topics and genres have been chosen, and frankly, I am not sure what I have gotten myself into. I wanted to do a genre that would be not only unique, but challenging as well, but now that I am trying to think of the logistics of the translation, my brain is just like:

 


*heavy sigh* Well, the Writing 2 gods have blessed me thus far, and hopefully they will continue to do so. Gonna go work on my WP-3 now, and pacify the mental chaos that is happening in my mind, so goodbye for now, and good luck to y’all on your own WP Journey to Greatness.

PB-3A: A Pitch. (And Hopefully A Home Run)

           After much deliberation, I think I have established a plan for what I am going to do for my WP-3. I reviewed the options, and I eventually decided that the one I found most interesting was option #1, which is the prompt about translating a scholarly article into a genre fit for a younger/older audience.

           For this project, I feel like I worked backwards in a sense, because I started out with deciding what younger and older genres I wanted to write in before I had selected what scholarly article I was going to be translating into those said genres. For my writing assignments, I always write better/more quality work when I have chosen a topic that interests me. I am a psychology major, so I have a tendency to be steered towards topics that are psychology or mental health related. I wanted to keep on that same vein but go a slightly different route when picking my scholarly article, and I eventually happened upon one titled: “Bullying of Children with Special Needs in Mainstream Schools.” I think this article is perfect because it allows me to adequately translate it into my older and younger genre. For my younger genre, I was thinking of doing a children’s book, that tells a story about a kid who meets a special needs child in his second grade class, and how he tries to understand and accept the differences between them. My audience would be young grade school children from the ages of 6 to 9. The purpose of the book will be to address exactly what it means to be ‘special needs’ and to teach children not mock or ignore the differences that exist, but to accept and celebrate them. I love drawing and being artistic, so I think I am going to have fun doing the illustrations for this project.

For my genre geared towards an older audience, I really wanted to do something unique, so I decided upon a legal brief of a court case. The point of a brief is to condense a case down to its most important elements: the facts of the case, the statement of rule, the holding, etc., and the age range for my audience would be from 25 year olds (ie. law students) to maybe 65 year olds adults. I chose a legal brief because I felt that I could sufficiently translate an academic work into this genre, seeing as they share several similarities in terms of tone, structure, organization, and format. I was thinking of translating the arguments found in the scholarly article into an argument that is part of a court case. Perhaps I could make up an imaginary case, and take the evidence, analysis, etc. from the scholarly article and incorporate it in such a way so that it comes together to sound like an actual legal case.

           I think I have picked unusual genres that give me room to have fun and be creative with this writing project-- I’m excited to get started!

Thlog #6- Bob Ross Has Some Great Hair

WP-2 is finally over with (thank Yeezus), I got to “attend” an online class in my pajamas while eating string cheese, and I splurged and bought one of those giant sugar cookies from the Arbor; so, yeah, you could say it was a good week.

But really though, I am seriously happy that WP-2 is done. Like a lot of my classmates, I was feeling kind of overwhelmed by the number of questions in the prompt, and I am pretty sure that my paper would have been like ten pages long if I tried to answer them all. But on another note, I really think I improved from my WP-1, in terms of structuring my paper, organizing my thoughts, and developing a more argumentative thesis. Right now my main worry is that I did not address everything I was supposed to… I've developed this habit of looking back at my work and thinking “Wow, I should have totally phrased this sentence a different way” or “it would've sounded dope if I included a tie-in to the readings right here”, but hey, hindsight is 20/20 right? You do the best you can do in the time you're given to do it. Hopefully my best was good enough this time.

Anyways, this week’s online class was pretty interesting. It was nice not having to leave my bed this morning, but in all honesty, I think class is a lot more fun and stimulating when it’s held in-person. Maybe it's because we are all able to participate more, bounce ideas and thoughts off each other, etc.. But I really enjoyed watching the Bob Ross and Disney videos, I felt like it was a really good connection to what we are learning in class about moves, genres, and the like.

Alright, that's it for now. WP-3 is quickly approaching, and it's making me nervous, so I think I'll go listen to Bob Ross’ soothing voice and watch him paint some mountains or water reflections or something.

Painting Trees Response

• What are some "moves" you see in these videos?
• The artists have specific techniques for specific ways of painting. Some artists have unique little tricks for getting a certain look on the canvas, for example Bob Ross’ method of creating a reflection in the water by just pulling the brush down, or one of the Disney artist’s decision to use white paint to give a three-dimensional illusion.
• How do these artists describe what they’re doing?  What do the artists refer to while they describe their work?  What do they talk about?  What do they direct our attention towards?  
• the artists will first describe what they are going to paint, with what type of brush (sometimes they will explain why they picked that certain brush), and finally how you’re supposed to do the stroke.
• They explain their thought process throughout,
• How would you characterize each artist's style, and what impact does their style have on you (a viewer/audience member)?  How have these artists chosen to portray their subject matter?
• Each artist had their own unique style. Bob Ross’ made the subjects in his paintings look pretty realistic and life-like, while some of the Disney artists chose to go a more cartoonish/abstract path when painting their trees. What I think is important here is that each artist painted differently depending on their own interpretation of the subject. Like Walt Disney said in the video, “What each [artist] has painted is not just the external appearance of a tree, but his own personal response to what a tree represents.

Journal 6.2

Q1. So, in the end, how’d your WP2 paper go?  What were you happy with?  What weren’t you?  Why?  Be specific! (Remember: this is fodder for your end-of-quarter metacognitive reflection)

I am actually pretty pleased with my WP-2. 
I thought I had good structure and flow, and that I was pretty clear in explaining the differences and similarities among the different articles. I also included more evidence from the readings than last time, and had a clearer thesis

Q2. Which 2 or 3 comments that you received yesterday were the most helpful for you?  Why?

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend class for the peer review sesh... However, the big changes I made to my rough draft were:
1) restructuring my paper so that it is organized by ideas, with my sources interweaved
2) clarification of thesis/argument
3) inclusion of more evidence from readings