It's middle of winter quarter now...

Wow does time fly! Weeks sure do turn into months when  college lures you into its work load. Though, it has been beneficial to study hard and focus on these new classes I'm taking; which include Pilgrimage studies, Digital Media vs. Society, and Precalculus. Now tell me that's not a busy load! However, lets see where this  quarter continues to take me, as I adventure into a world of annotations and research.

Time to Finish Up What I Started

Written on the first day of my writing class this quarter I was given the opportunity to write who I thought I was as a writer and this is what I decided upon,

"As a writer I am an explorer. Determined to achieve an understanding of exactly what I write, and why I     write.  To explore the world around me, and draw a conclusion, or maybe just post a question." 

Still now I feel that after this fall I am an explorer.  Whether it is researching articles where I explore the World Wide Web to find the information I need, exploring my articles found to be able to form my thesis, or exploring my essay in itself to make sure that I have my main points clearly stated.  I learned that I really am an explorer in writing and researching. I know that I still have skills to enhance but I also understand that I have a great start to it with knowing who I am as a writer. 

SLO Reflection Two

In the beginning of this quarter I honestly could not tell you what truly critical thinking was when it came to research and papers. However, now I understand what it is.  When it comes to summing up research or articles, the way I do so is reading through each paragraph and finding the key point from it, after doing so I move on to my next set of research in the other articles.  By writing down the key text I am automatically given an easy comparison. Then, I am able to find whether they are similar or different, and relevant to what I am writing about; only moving forward from there, forming my argument.  

Now as for writing thesis, I have always been awful at that. I feel like over this quarter I learned that if I have an idea of what I want to prove and my argument I can start with that, then later move forward to my research, re-establish my argument, and then form my thesis.  It is a long process but I feel that I need to accomplish those tasks before actually coming up with a thesis that is adequate in sharing my main ideas in my essay.

SLO Reflection Number One

My close reading skills I would say have enhanced a bit. I have learned to take the large pieces of information and try to point out the main ideas, rather than being overwhelmed at the paragraphs in front of me. I also learned that taking small notes of the things that stand out help also.  It allows me to remember the points that I wrote down clearly, because knowing myself I read over the paragraphs and keep going, as if it all goes "in one ear and out the other" theoretically of course.

Research was an area I was not at all worried about. During high school I spent countless hours on research essays and projects. However, I never anticipated the difficulty of finding an article in college would be. So learning how to use the UWT library's search as well as learning how to use worldcat will forever help me to find the things I need.

The Meaning of Revision

  Revision to me after this class, Blog Me!, means that I can say my ideas and share my thoughts in  my essays or posts and I will get the reviews and opinions back from my peers to alter the writing I had.  I will spend time analyzing my essay as well as taking into account the feedback I got about my paper itself.  Revision is all about enhancing, making the original better until it gets to its best. You can go about revising a 5 page paper many times in order to get it just right, and while the main points will still be there the essay, in order to be its best, could have completely altered.  It is all about enhancing the points wanting to prove, and when others revise it gives the writer that opportunity.

Second Essay Information

  My essay is indeed rough.  I know that I need to work on the main points to be clearer and allowing the strengths of it to flow through.  Overall though I feel the body does run well together. I give points from my article i'm searching as well as using West's article for support for identity.

Essay plans

In my essay coming up I plan to approach the idea of identity, but instead of researching on how to find identity I will come from the viewpoint of written identity or personality versus actual identity.  I will also add to this argument the standpoint of blogging being a great source for educational academic writing. After this essay is finished I hope to have found what it is that I am looking to share with the readers, but I'm not quite there yet. Until then- C.E.