Rose

1.      Algorithms rather than heuristics

Questionable heuristics made algorithms

Set

The plan that is not a plan

Feedback

Too many rules—“Conceptual Concept”

I am always trying to go by the exact structure given by my teacher in high school. It was hard because the way I think of it and the idea comes to me is in a different way. I was never sure how to put my idea down on paper the other way.

2.      Rules that blockers face are more rigid therefore hurting their writing, keeping them from composing their piece of writing. Whereas writers who don’t get writers block use rules but they are less rigid and don’t keep them from writing. Their rules were better for a process like writing because of the complexity. Writers who get writers block are more worried about entertaining the reader not just write. Also, they have a hard time because they are so worried about order and going by a specific structure. On the other hand, non-blockers also use rules but they are not absolute. They are rules to try to use, not that they are a necessity.

4.      A good rule for writers is to try to embed quotes into the writing so that it flows well. But if you are not able to don’t force it and change the meaning of the point you are trying to get across. A bad rule for writers is they must embed every quote used and be sure to include three quotes into each body paragraph.

 

The good rule is good because it is something that will help the writer enhance their ideas and help get the point across but if it is not easily done, it is not worth creating writers block from it. The bad rule is bad because it is forcing the writer to include quotes when maybe only two are needed to have a solid point and by adding another quote all it does is hurt the point being made.

 

A bad rule is generally an algorithm and a good rule is generally a heuristic.

Sommers

1. Experienced writers and writers in school see revision in to completely different ways. Students call crossing out of words and exchanging them for better revision where as experienced writers look at the content, structure, form and the actual rewriting of a piece.

3. Speech and writing are different because there is no revision in speech.  Revision can happen in papers over and over again and still not make a difference while revision in speech is just an afterthought. The speech is over with and there is no way to change it.

5. Writing processes are not straight forward, no linear line.  Each writer has a different writing process and none of them are straight forward and easy. I think students see writing as linear because of the way we were taught in school. There were steps for each process and the process was the same for each paper. We made an outline, made a draft, we then edited it, the process was the same each time and if we went away from it we lost points. Whereas experienced writers will create a piece different each time because each story, essay, article is different.

7. I would have to agree with Sommers because ever since sixth grade I have been taught to look for linking verbs, make sure everything is in the same tense, be careful of word choice, and never was I told to go back and look at the content of my paper and rewrite a paragraph. I was taught to make my paper better was to cross out and change a word. Maybe even cross out an entire sentence that did not belong.

Writing Process of Famous Author

Suzanne Collins is the Author of Hunger Games, Mocking Jay, Catching Fire and more. When Collins begins to write a book she gets some cereal to clear her head because the less she is worried about the more she can focus on her task at hand.  With that said, she writes in the morning, anywhere from 3 hours to early afternoon.  A lot of the times, all she does is sit there and stare at the wall, which might sound pretty unproductive but in reality she is sorting out the characters and plots.  In her mind, thinking for three hours and not writing a word down is still a productive day. While she is writing it is hard for her to listen to music with words, so she usually listens to Mozart if she has something on.  Every day varies, but she quits once she is mentally drained, but still continues to think about the characters as she goes throughout her day, because she can be sure they are well developed. She puts herself in her characters shoes and thinks about how they’d react to the situations at hand.

The writing process of Collins is different than most because several people say they have better success writing at night and sometimes at odd hours of the morning. A lot of people would think they are being unproductive if they did not get anything down on paper after three hours and think it was just a waste of time, not a successful day. Collins process of writing until she is mentally drained is a way for college students to think about starting their work well before the night before so that there is time to stop and start later on. Not many students are thinking about their papers throughout the day what they can write like Collins either.

Prior

2. All of the different components involved in the writing process are:

·       Collecting and keeping track of texts

·       Intertextual analysis

·       Eliciting writers’ account

·       Observation of writing

·       Integrating data from multiple sources

3. Composition is the writing process where the writer writes his or her own thoughts down creating a piece of writing while inscription is where the writer uses different tools to “inscribe” others thoughts and ideas into a piece of writing. It is the act of moving an idea from your mind to paper in the best possible way.

4. It is important to distinguish different kinds of authorship because the different kinds allow both composition and inscription in the text. The animator is the one who inscribes the words. The author is the one who decides on the words.  The principal shows whose position is represented by the words. Authorship is important to help prevent plagiarism.

5. To be able to trace the writing process we must trace the structure of participation. The structure of participation is examining who s involved in the making of the text. We can’t really understand where the information came from and who it is meant for with the structure of participation. Animator, author, and principle are the kinds of participation in the text that he included.

7. Concurrent accounts are based on thinking aloud to help stimulate the writing process because it makes it easier to put your thoughts on paper. Also by saying everything out loud it helps you understand everything better. Retrospective Accounts are all about memory and people remember very little from moment-to-moment thinking making it very difficult. Process logs are something someone uses to help keep their thoughts regarding the writhing process. These can help display key points and display the work has. Semi-structured interviewing is a process that involves asking questions that have been prepared in advance. Stimulated Elicitation Interviewing is when you ask questions depending on the interviewee’s memory as the basis of the response. These questions can trigger memories leading to good answers.  My favorites are concurrent accounts and stimulated elicitation interviewing because I think for me reading aloud and saying my thoughts out will help me put my ideas on paper and the questions helped trigger the thoughts for my Narrative.

Murray and Strasser

Murray

2. According to Murray, writing is autobiography. Poems, fiction, essay, newspaper column, and others are all considered autobiographies because everything somebody writes about comes from a personal experience and memories. Murray writes about his childhood or past but sometimes it did not happen until he wrote it down. For example with the pond and the fish, he skated on a pond, but not necessarily on that exact pond and the fish were there but not noticed until he wrote it. It is what he writes that is considered autobiographical.

5. I would have to agree with Murray because if you write like someone has told you and the way you are taught, it isn’t really your own writing.  The way I see it is writing is something that defines who you are and if you write how a teacher tells you to write, you are not able to express yourself. This makes me think about writing in a whole new perspective where I do not have to write every essay the exact same; each one can have their own little splash of being unique.

6. The last texts I have written were from high school where the teacher wanted it a specific way and that way only. I didn’t understand her way of writing and I think if I can have a thesis and make point in my own way, then that should be allowed. But in our world today it is much more difficult to be the non conformist.

Strasser

1. I agree with Strasser that, “The devices of grammar and rhetoric remain superficial skills until a writer employs them to express important and powerful feelings, thoughts and ideas,” because none of it matters until you trying to make a point. I feel as if writing skills are only needed for those who want to express their feelings and ideas to others. Otherwise the knowledge someone has does nothing if they don’t care to express themselves.

2. I believe a lot of students do not really care about what they are writing about and for. They do it just so that they can pass the class. The only ones that care are those who want to become an English major. That isn’t a bad thing, but it is obvious how many people do not enjoy reading or writing in school; and part of that could be because nobody has any interest in what is being taught. I do agree that grammar is an important thing to learn because I feel as if I have not learned anything about grammar after the sixth grade. I don’t know if it just me but we become smarter after sixth grade so why not go over some grammar and different ways to write a sentence without any grammatical errors.

3. I agree with Bell in some parts even though I have been in college for no more than a month. What I have noticed so far is that people stay up late finishing homework and studying because they procrastinate in the earlier part of the day and not getting much sleep at night. I always made sure I slept at least 8 hours during high school, not is just 7. I am extremely tired when I wake up and by the time I have practice I am exhausted. All I want to do is nap instead of studying again until late hours. But I don’t think professors have to act like we are their children, we are all now grown-ups. We are old enough to make our own decisions. If one wants to party let them, it is their choice; education and a future or temporary fun.

Review of Literacy Narrative

Now that I have finished my Literacy Narrative I am relieved. It is turned in and complete. But there are some things I would have liked to be different in the process of writing the essay. When I wrote the outline I thought about what I wanted to incorporate and the times that made a big difference to me in my career as a reader and writer. Except, the process of writing my paper could have been spread out instead of sitting down and writing 5 paragraphs throughout one night. I think it would have been more beneficial to write one or two a night instead of just going for it all at once. I feel each paragraph would have been a little bit better developed because I would put the time in for each paragraph. I am quickly learning the difficulties with golf and traveling as well as trying to balance my schoolwork. I was rushed when writing the narrative. Although it is better than I was expecting, there are a few steps I could have taken to make it even better. Within the paper, I worried that I had too much story telling and not enough telling the reader why the event is important to me. On the other hand, by making the reader fully understand the situation that happened and the way it made me feel, they still understand the reason as to where I stand today. Some explanations could have been a bit more descriptive but I have hard time finding the words to help me describe my thoughts. I tend to have the ideas, but struggle putting it down on the paper. To go with struggling to put words on the paper in the way I want, I have a hard time with grammar. For some, it comes naturally and they do not have to even think about it, whereas I have the hardest time deciding when to use a comma. I either go overboard with commas, or I don't use them near enough. At times in my paper I would change from past to present, back to past causing confusion as the reader read my narrative. I think I fixed all of those spots though.  Overall I am satisfied with the paper, but I think it could be a little better with time.

Favorite Childhood Book

Every night I anticipated the time to come for my mom to read a book.  It was the only way my mom could get me to put on my pajamas and brush my teeth. I didn’t know how to read but the story was always enjoyable as well as the pictures. The drawings on each page are what made me so excited for my mom reading to me. I listened to her read so many times I had each word memorized. Along with Goodnight Moon and Curious George, but it was like nothing could come in between the hilarious mouse and I. After each book I would beg and beg for my mom to read another one.  I always wanted her to read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  After the slightest bit of guidance the roles switched and I read to my mom.  I loved reading this book because I thought it was so funny that the mouse would have to do ten more things just because he ate a cookie. It was the same thing over and over again. The mouse ate a cookie. Was given a glass a milk. Then he wanted a straw, which lead to needing a napkin. He had to check his milk mustache and noticed he needed to trim his hair, which somehow lead to sweeping and washing the floors, taking a nap, and coloring. I still remember this book like the back of my hand. My brother played baseball all the time and I would never miss one of his games.  One day I wrote about my brother and baseball to follow If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  If my brother had a baseball he would want his glove and then want me to play catch with him, or my dad. After he was exhausted he would want something to drink and so on.  This book has taught me everything leads to something else.  In other words, good decisions lead to something else good where as a bad decision leads to something bad and so on.  It makes me think twice about my decisions and what it may eventually lead to.

Villanueva

1. The shifting between first and third person creates a feeling that there are two different people being talked about in the text. On the other hand, the first person seems to be used when the author is talking about his feelings and emotions while the third person is used to explain what is physically happening. I was taught to always stick to first person or third person. No going back and forth because it causes confusion and the reader will think there is more than one person.

2.  Villanueva's definition of rhetoric is more than I can understand. Rhetoric has something to do with different languages and using symbols. Also rhetoric has something to do with language being biologically transmitted. Villanueva believes studying rhetoric is a way of studying humans. Rhetoric is basically its own language.

3. In high school I was supposed to look at the way an author wrote and then incorporate it into our essay. But I looked at their sentence structures, the variation in length of sentences, and the vocabulary in which they use.  With the length of sentences it could show something with getting right to the point, or something important. Variation in sentence structures makes it more interesting than reading something that starts with the same word for each sentence.

4. The process of Villanueva is similar to my process because I just stare, looking around trying to figure out what to write about. Then I stare trying to figure out how I will put my ideas down on paper, which is probably the most difficult part for me. I also write what comes to mind and realize it makes no sense because it is all in the wrong order. I would move everything around just like Villanueva did.