Currently Dreaming of Joel’s Elbows

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I wrote this title in reference to Karen Rosenberg’s Reading Games, the reading assignment for today. In it, she describes solutions for reading the horrid scholarly articles. (N.B. If scholarly articles are your thing, congratulations. You’re a better person than I) At the end were conveniently placed discussion questions. Let’s dive in.

Pick one reading strategy above that you may have used in reading a text previously. Discuss the ways in which this strategy worked for you and/or didn’t work for you. Would you recommend friends use this strategy? How might you amend it, and when might you use it again?

I love the idea of making reading a social event. My thoughts are clarified through talking them out with other people. Plus, it’s cool to see how differently others deciphered the same reading. It usually works well for me, right up until the conversation turns from the symbolism in the text to the latest buzz throughout the hallway. And there, my friends, is the downfall. There’s no way to fix it, either. The teenage brain is wired to figure out who has the cutest semi date or nicest car. You can’t get in the way of it, it just happens. Back to the strategy: I’d use it next time I don’t quite comprehend a reading. It’s sort of like killing two birds with one stone.

The author writes in several places about reading academic texts as entering a conversation. What does this mean to you? How can you have a conversation with a text?

I think Rosenberg is trying to say that one should pick apart a reading to see what he or she does and doesn’t agree with and challenge that. It’s another way to get yourself involved and focused. Have a conversation by voicing your opinion as well (in your head most likely).

Until next time,

Rach

Everyday Writing Research

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What kinds of sources have you already used to think about everyday writing?

A lot of class reading assignments lately have been focused on everyday writing. (how convienient, Laurie (; ) Some examples are Naming What We Know (Estrem, Russell, Roozen) and Backpacks vs. Briefcases. These have led me to seeing more depictions of everyday writing throughout my days.

What kinds of sources do you think might be helpful as you continue your research?

I need to go out and find examples myself. Doing research on refrigerators and their hidden meanings, I would have to look at other people’s. My dear friends have already sent me pictures of their fridges, begrudgingly of course. I now have to find other pictures and maybe some readings about the underlying significance of what people take pride in.

Until next time,

Rach

What’s Your Refrigerator Telling You?

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Unfortunately, I’m focusing on the outside of the fridge tonight. What do the magnets, papers, pictures, etc. have to say about the house it belongs to?

My refrigerator is quite decked out. Covered in pictures, newspaper articles. art projects, and numerous magnets of varying shapes, colors, and sizes: it’s a great way to look into life inside the Moffitt household. The audience in this rhetorical situation is anyone who comes into our home, usually family and friends. To the unknowing passerby, our fridge looks like it was designed by a seven-year-old. (Joke’s on them. It actually was.) That’s where the exigence lies; not every person who sees our refrigerator understands the mess. If they don’t understand our family dynamic, they can’t comprehend why we’d let our refrigerator be the beautiful mess it is. We’re constrained by the lack of room on our fridge. The audience is constrained by its lack of understanding.

Until next time

Rachel

Everyday Writing: Meaningful or Mindless?

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After scouring my bedroom for an example of everyday writing, I found an old birthday card from an even older friend. Inspiration found. The rhetorical situation for this card was that I was the audience. The purpose of the “author” was to express friendship and love. She may have taken inspiration from previous experiences or have created her own path. This is expressed in Roozen’s “Writing is a Social and Rhetorical Activity” from Naming What We Know. The writer found her purpose and performed for her audience, meeting her ethical responsibilities.

I also found it interesting that the words I found so meaningful and heartfelt can seem like just a jumble of words to anyone else who reads them. It makes me stop and think about my own life and how everything is subjective. Deep.

Until next time,

Rachel

Rules are for Fools

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“The use of standard writing conventions by the author is significant to the establishment of ethos because this rhetorical appeal signals to readers the writer’s credibility and expertise.”

“Don’t begin a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘because.'” “Mention your thesis in the introductory paragraph.” “First person narratives are not professional pieces of writing.” Following rules is for people who’ haven’t experienced enough. I see this in my own life. When I don’t know what I’m doing (which happens far more often than I care to admit) I follow the rules religiously. Whether it’s writing a paper, driving a car, or multiplying polynomials; if you told me standing on my head and barking like a dog was a rule, I’d probably follow it. After I get a feel for what I’m doing I can become more lenient with the structure of it all. (Public apology is being issued to anyone who caught me speeding in a school zone or skipping that one step in my math work. I’d like to say I feel bad, but I don’t) My life follows a beautiful pattern:

  1. Be thrown into a new situation.
  2. Test the waters.
  3. Get comfortable.
  4. Get too comfortable.
  5. Push myself too far.
  6. Crash.
  7. Burn.
  8. Repeat.

Life is one ginormous learning experience. I learned this especially through writing. Do I personally think one must introduce their thesis, support it throughout the body paragraphs, make use of colorful language, put all the commas in all the right places, and looooove writing to be a great writer? Absolutely not. Writing is a skill that has to be practiced all the time. And just because a person is really, really good at one kind of writing doesn’t mean he or she is great at every kind of writing. Thinking in that sense is like saying, “Well he’s really good at cutting up vegetables, let’s see if he knows how to perform open heart surgery.” Pure danger. Once a writer finds his or her voice it can change the world. He or she doesn’t find that by following the rules so strictly. Find your purpose.

The point I’m trying to get across is that rules are guidelines, but not set in stone. A writer needs to find her own style, that style might be flawlessly executed paragraphs or haphazardly strewn together sentences. Find what you’re good at and work it to your advantage.

Link to reading: http://www.xchanges.org/xchanges_archive/xchanges/6.1/tyrrell/Tyrrell.pdf

“Ten Ways To Think About Writing”

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This was a loooooong essay. You can check it out by clicking here.

At the end, the writers pose a series of questions. Here are a few:

Which section of this essay do you remember most clearly? Write down what you remember about it, and explain how you might use an idea in that section to help with a writing task that you’re doing this week. Why do you think this section stuck with you?

The section on showing and telling made a lot of sense to me. It made me stop and think about what my writing portrays and how it paints me as a writer. It stuck with me because it was relatable and easy to wrap my head around. Her real-world examples simplified a rather complex idea and I applaud her for that.

What other rules for writing have you been told to follow, either at school or outside of school in your workplace, community group, or online setting? List a couple of rules that weren’t described in this essay, and note down whether you think they’re most connected to the principle of writing from knowledge, showing enough detail, or adapting to readers’ needs. Also, if there’s another principle for writing that helps you a lot, something you always try to do, add a note about it so you can share it with your classroom peers.

“You guys are doomed when it comes to writing in college.” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it two thousand times. Every grammar teacher follows the rules he or she likes; and as students we’re expected to know which rules are and are not honored in the class. Don’t use the pronoun “you” was the golden rule of Sophomore English class. “It can victimize the readers and give them advice they aren’t looking for” was the justification. I see this as a rule one can take or leave depending on the audience. I’m also a huge fan of the Oxford comma, which I see wasn’t mentioned. It can turn “I enjoy eating, dogs, and children to be exact” to “I enjoy eating, dogs and children to be exact.” Save the dogs and children. Use the Oxford comma.

Until next time,

Rachel

This is not a “Shitty First Draft”

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Anne Lamott hit the nail on the head in her Shitty First Draft essay. It was both extremely relatable and genuinely funny. I laugh because my first drafts are the biggest messes I’ve ever seen. Imagine a six year old holding a filibuster in Congress. My drafts end up in a fairly similar situation.

The greatest example of this is a paper I wrote about lying. I recently found the first drafts of it and I couldn’t help but laugh. Actual quote: “One should refrain from lying because the Pope doesn’t lie. He’s going to Heaven and we all want to.” The childlike nature combined with trying to be an adult doesn’t work. It never has and never will. Luckily, this draft hasn’t seen the light of day, Honestly, it turned out to be one of my greatest papers thus far, once I got the Pope’s concerns off my mind. I completely agree with Lamott that once you get your dumb side comments out of your head, clarity can take precedence in your paper. Seeing this in an essay validated my inner thoughts in a way I didn’t think way possible.

In Brooke and Carr’s essay in Naming What We Know they say “Failure is an oppourtunity for growth.” This really spoke to me. I’ve written my fair share of “failure” papers; not grade wise, but I know they were not my best. From these papers I’ve learned more about myself and my writing style than I ever could from a perfectly executed paper. Once I realized I’m never going to be the “inspired writer” I became more comfortable with myself. I allowed myself to be naive and childlike and it paid off in the long run.

I look forward to the many more failures to come.

Does Liking Writing Make You a Good Writer?

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Sara Allen asks this in my reading for today. (linked here) I see it both ways. Passion improves writing but it’s not a make or break situation. Some people have writing papers down to a science, but despise every minute of doing so. It’s all about perspective. (I’d love to hear your opinions down below)

At the end of her writing she poses the questions. Here I answer them as honestly as possible.

What are you most anxious about when writing?

I experience anxiety because I think I sound stupid when I write. I have trouble finding the “right” words and tones to fit my audience. I stress myself out over the words and end up with a paper below my potential.

What are you anxious about when sharing your work with a teacher or classmate?

I experience the same anxiousness when writing for my classes. I’m a fairly smart person, but when it comes to writing I lose any ounce of self confidence I ever possessed. I think about my pending grade, and who’s reading my paper, and all sorts of nonsense among the lines of that; it’s enough to drive a girl insane. and it does. I’m working on it.

Dear God, please make sure this doesn’t sound stupid. Thanks

Irvin’s “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?”

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Hi everybody! Tonight’s post comes courtesy L. Lennie Irvin’s “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” Link is here so you can see to what I’m responding. At the end he poses the following questions:

1.)How did what you wrote in high school compare to what you have/will do in your academic writing in college?

I see college writing as a more relaxed writing style. In high school all our writing assignments are formal and (in a way) force us to act more mature than we actually are. In my college class, I can write how I feel is appropriate for the subject. It’s a more easygoing process. I enjoy both, but college is a bit more tolerable.

2.)Think of two different writing situations you have found yourself in. What did you need to do the same in those two situations to place your writing appropriately? What did you need to do differently?

The two situations I chose to focus on were writing my “after high school” essay last year and writing my first “essay” of my college writing class. In both situations I needed music to help me focus. I also locked myself away from my friends and family until I got the work done. This might sound a bit strange, but my family is the kind that won’t leave you alone if you’re in their sight. It’s necessary to increase productivity.

I definitely stressed myself out over my high school paper. A lot. This being my first “big kid” research paper, I didn’t take into account all the work needed to complete the paper. The fact that I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school didn’t help the situation either. This time around I stopped putting off the work for later and got the work done efficiently. It made for a much better experience overall.

Thank you for reading! Be sure to leave your feedback down below,

Until next time,

Rachel