Self Review of Paper

My essay has a continual focus to how I get my essay done. There is a theme and it progresses and transitions from one step to the next. It is very easy for the reader to come on my "writing process journey" with me, since I really take them through an example of this process. But, with this I could definetly analyze my process more rather than just really telling it to my audience and going into detail about it. My essay does stay clear on topic though with what happens during the writing process and is very organized on how I display my information. But, I do not really have a clear thesis to my essay and could go deeper than just saying what goes on during my writing process.

Take 20

This video was very interesting seeing the other perspective of what the teacher goes through when grading a paper. To see many different teachers speak about what they experience or have experienced as being a teacher. It was interesting seeing their "process" of giving feedback and grading essays. That doing this isn't easy for them. And that teachers really do care about their students and the success of their students. That they really have learned to think before really giving feedback, and also how they have learned and come up with many new strategies when coming up with feedback for the essays that are assigned. It was really cool seeing the enthusiasm and care that these teachers had for their students.

What my essay is doing and saying

• Paragraph one is acting hurried by saying how much I am in a rush to start my essay.
• Paragrah two is showing what I do before I begin my paper by saying how I am entering the Cafeteria.
• Paragraph three is showing what I do before I begin my paper by saying that I sit down with my friends and eat food.
• Paragraph four is descrbing the before process of writing once I get to my room by saying what I am doing before I begin my essay.
• Paragraph five is describing what must be done before I write my essay by saying that I need to organize myself before I begin.
• Paragraph six is the start of the essay by saying that I open up Microsoft Word and begin my paper by talking about self efficacy.
• Paragraph seven is when I get tired from writing and need a break by saying that I am tired and need to go outside and do other things before getting back to my essay.
• Paragraph eight is when I decide to get back to my essay by saying that I re-open Microsoft Word andmove on to my next paragraph on my NEO test.
• Paragraph nine is when I continue back and forth between my essays and breaks and when I finally finish my essay by saying that I finally am done at 2 in the morning and feel proud for my accomplishment.
• Paragrapg 10 is wrappin up why this process works for my by saying that I like how I form connections quickly during a short period of time.

Feedback from Buddy on My Writing Process

I agree with how my buddy said that my essay was choppy, needed more transitions, and just overall just needed to flow more. When I have a lot of ideas I tend to just spit them out on to my paper and really just free write and go with the thoughts that spark up in my head. I do this especially during the first draft when I do not go over my essay at all and am really just getting my thoughts onto paper. Ironically, this is really a part of my writing process. When I am writing down these thoughts they make sense to me because it is me trying to get out what goes on in my head onto paper, but I would imagine it would hard for others to understand what is really going on in my head, considering that is what I am putting on the sheet of paper.I also agree with the affirmations she gave me which is that I did go with a particular style for this paper to help engage the reader in my writing process. I did this through bringing the reader into my life of when I wrote a paper so they could really see my writing process first hand.I plan to go through my paper and try to make it clearer for the reader to truly understand what I am trying to convey. I plan to read my paper out loud several times during several different periods so I can really hear what I am writing and really clear up my paper. I plan to read my paper once every day this week until it is due to really hear the paper several times and each time after I read it I will clean it up until it sounds good for that day.I believe that if I approach my paper this way I can really make the most successful changes possible and will be able to really polish up my paper towards its due date. If I do this I will really be able to hear it with different “ears” considering it will be different days of me reworking it. And I do believe if I do this I will be successful in this essay.

The Persistence of Writing

The Persistence of Writing was a persepective taking of where writing is going today. Compared to years ago we have many new sources to get information from where people really don't need to sit down and write; but, where they can listen to audio tapes, etc. It is a discussion about why writing is so important and is talking about how writing really goes back to the basics, and takes it back to a book that was written in the late 1700's. They speak about how writing really is an isolated connection between a community work and one's own thoughts which then gets turned over to being shared with a community once again. It speaks of why it is so important that we keep up with writing and keep on learning how to share our thoughts through this basic, but sometimes difficult form.

Questions

1. Are people's writing abilities slowly digressing because of technology and new media ways of communicating?
2. Is our society as a whole afraid that America's writing ability is getting worse, so we are trying to be more proactive and create classes, like this one, to improve peoples writing once again?

Elbow/Bartholomae Exercise

Writing Process is the composition of writing. It is a development of writing and is continuous. There is usually a five step procedural method, which includes prewriting, draft, revision, editing, and evaluation. It is saying that writing is done through practice and is a never-ending process. We learn through writing, editing, and rewriting.
The writing process is similar to a forehand swing in tennis. There are steps to take when swinging the racket. This swing starts on either side of ones body, continues across the body to make contact with the ball, and ends at the opposite side of ones body. There are stance positions that will improve your stroke. This is similar to the writing process being that there is a procedural method; along with this the stance is the way you improve your writing.
When writing, I cannot do it all in one sitting. I write until I come to the point of becoming bored, or not really wanting to write. I then take a break, and come back to my writing. One effect is I spend a lot of time going back and forth to my writing, which takes up more time, than rather doing a whole piece of writing in one setting.
Peter Elbow speaks of the negative effects of writing in such a short period. He says that writing is a long process, and you can always improve your writing. Many times when I write essays I write them the night before and that is that. However, he says the best way to write is to spend time on your writing.

My writing style looks like the ice cream I eat in the café; it is chocolate ice cream in a cone. Whenever I get this, I have to eat my ice cream fast, but it always tastes good. When I write, I like to write in a short session right before the writing is due, and when I do I make many more connections and my writing comes out very good, just like the ice cream.
My writing is similar to construction workers building up a neighborhood in a short period. When they do this, they build many houses that are very usable for a family. This is similar to when I write being that I spend time writing during a specific given period and my writing gives light and use to other people.
Another analogy my writing can be compared to is buying a car. When someone has made up there mind to buy a specific car, they go to the dealer and pick out that “right” car for him or her. And the process of actually finding that right car is done in a short amount of time and the buyer leaves with a car that they love. This is similar to my writing process because once I have a topic in mind I can sit down for a relatively short period and shoot out all my thoughts and ideas, forming an essay that I am happy with.
The components of my writing process, can vary, but at the same time are very specific. What I mean by this is, it takes me a little while to actually sit down and begin my essay. What varies is the things that I did before starting to write. It can be anything to listening to music, eating, drinking, calling my close friends, doing an errand, etc. Then when my body and mind feel empowered to sit down and write I sit down at my computer and start putting down what comes to mind for my topic. Usually I have research papers that are easily accessible while doing so and I put them in a particular order before even starting my paper. Next, is when I just can’t think anymore and have had enough with writing for this paper. So I go again to doing the things that I did before I even started writing. I go back and forth doing this for many, many hours; until I take that long stride at the end and finally complete my paper.

"Writing style." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Sep 2009, 18:19 UTC. 10 Sep 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Writing_style&oldid=313044136>.

The Elbow Bartholomae Debate

Bartholomae disagrees with Peter Elbow's approach to writing; but, he is also very open minded to hearing his approach to things. Bartholomae approaches this debate by giving his personal views which for the most part are contradictory with Elbow's and then starts to throw out questions for the reader and himself to ponder about approaching writing.

One thing that Bartholomae believes is that academic writing is what truly is learnt at an academy, that this is key to what the instructors are there to do. He thinks that without teachers, writing is impossible. This all contradicts what Elbow has said. He said that he suffered the most when it was all done for the instructors. That writing isn't about teachers and is done the best when writing becomes about you and not what the professor is looking for or a due date.

Bartholomae continues on with saying that part of writing is learning how to critique and that this is practice to improve ones own writing. Part of critiquing he says is using that red pen and making corrections and showing perspective on writing; that this is how to better oneself when it does come to writing. Bartholomae says that we don't only learn more from perspective taking, but also from "literary devices" that are of course, taught by teachers. He believes that writing is a process and part of this is being taught the art of writing. He thinks that people learning to write should be able to learn to write in a way that makes them sound elegant, smart, independent,.. and the only way to go about this is to really be taught the style of writing.

The points that Bartholomae argues contradict what Elbow believes and what Elbow has really learnt from himself over time. But, everyone can have their own way of approaching writing. Elbow and Bartholomae clearly have two different personalities. These two different personality traits can be seen as someone who is more abstract and someone who is more contructive and does things in a more outlined, in the box type of fashion.

Questions

1. How does Bartholomae approach a writing task?
2. Can there be more than one right way to write?

My Experiences With Writing

In my past I have really struggled with writing. More specifically what I struggle with is putting all my thoughts on a piece of paper. My head generates thoughts at such a fast speed that I feel like I have so much to write down. Usually when this happens I write down my thoughts at such a fast speed that what I write down makes sense to me, but does not usually make sense to people reading what I have written. I have realized that I really need to read through, edit, and organize my writing several times before I turn it in.
The times when I really enjoyed writing was when I wrote and was the editor for the entertainment section of my school newspaper. I loved reading many other articles and finding out many things in the entertainment world and then putting what I learned into my own piece of work to share with my school. I loved the connection between the world of entertainment to sharing my own thoughts of how I viewed the entertainment world.

Summary on Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow starts his interview by speaking about his past experiences with writing. At college he was able to put together pieces on what the teacher wanted to hear. But, when it came time for him to put together his own writing pieces at graduate school he suffered to the point of actually leaving that school. He had such a hard time with putting together pieces and would go back and forth with scratching out so much of his writing and really didn't know how to move forward. This, ironically, is what got him so interested in writing. What he calls his "failure" to write is what led him to being an english professor at a University.

So how did he go from failure to success? He learned many strategies which changed his outlook on writing forever. One of the things he did was writing many thoughts he had on sheets of paper on when he first got stuck expressing his thoughts through writing, and trying to figure out how this exactly happened. He ended up having so many notes that he eventually comprised them into one of his books to help others try and write well.

He then goes on to speak about one of the more important lessons he learned. He calls this strategy "making a mess". For him this means that he does not start off with organizing his thoughts through an outline, but rather writing down whatever comes to mind and see where this takes him. He had trouble trying to put his thoughts together into an organized outline and then to take the outline and form this into an essay. So, he learned that the best way for him to write is to basically just write. To be able to get all of his thoughts down onto a sheet of paper; and then to go back to that sheet of paper and edit his writing.

When he did start editing his "mess" this was the step he labels, "creating and critizing". This is where he really took the time going back to his writing and truly editing and critizing his work. It was easier for him to have all of his thoughts on paper and then to later go over his work. With this, another useful tip he discovered was that whenever he had an idea for a big essay he would write down his idea. He called this idea, "sowing early seeds". He would do this several times, so that he had many thoughts written down which he then could branch into a paper. He found the best times for him to formulate his thoughts was when he was eating, showering, or doing simple tasks on his own time, where he had the time to think.

Questions

1. How did Peter Elbow start his transition of leaving graduate school to realizing he really wanted to improve his writing?
2. Was there one person that really put Peter in the right path to writing success?