Holiday Activity

I heard the bells on Christmas Day; its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Deck the halls, because its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire; its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Baby its cold outside, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Graded Blog Post 40: An Encouraging Letter to myself

Dear me,

Do not worry, it will turn out fine. You can improve your writing by putting more focus on prewriting techniques. You can go get help with your writing assignments. If you have trouble understanding something calm down, wait a bit, and think about it some more. Remember, it is possible to do nearly anything when writing, make sure that you do the right thing.

sincerely,
you

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/letter-e-mail-email-send-post-97861/

Graded Blog Post 39: Letter to myself

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25477528@N00/5181143856

Dear past me,

Pay attention to what is being asked when what is being asked by the prompt. It will help out in terms of not loosing out on a draft for that reason. Also, use more outlines in our writing process, it will make writing the drafts so much easier that you won't believe the difference. Also, calm down everything is going to turn out alright.

Sincerely,

your future self

Graded blog post 38: Reflective Essay Organizing Idea and Thesis

I am now going to be writing five sample thesis for the following organizational ideas present in this blog post by Dr. Bell.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mustangjoe/5966894496

1. The QRG writing assignment is a good way to illustrate the change in my writing and writing process, as it is my first paper in the semester, and it will show the greatest difference between now and then.
2. It is through comparing how my writing took shape in this course with the Advanced Composition course I took in high school that I will be able to see how I have grown and changed as a writer, especially in terms of common mistakes and general patterns that I have.
3. It through going over my previous works that I noticed that there were several idea, skills, and concepts that I was doing poorly, as well as some that I were rather good at, and how I had changed over from then to now.
4. It is my belief that over the course I have grown in my abilities to understand, identify, and analyze rhetorical strategies, components, and appeals.
5. The process that I use to write has had a large impact on my writing. It is my belief that I have improved this process over the semester, and that it has shown in my later papers.

The one I plan to use is the third one, which goes with the "reflect on strengths and weaknesses" idea. The reason is that I believe that this one is a good one for me to pick when considering that I have to show Dr. Bell how I have grown as a a writer in this reflective essay.

I have commented on Gee's post and Chesnick's post.

Graded Blog Post 37: Audience and Invention for Reflective Essay

Here are my answers to the five questions asked on page 249 in A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing 36th Edition.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/peteoshea/5600161625/

• What topic do I want to discuss with my readers? What do I want them to understand about the topic?
• The main topic I want to discuss with my audience is the change that both my writing and writing process have underwent over the semester. I want them to understand that there has been a change in my writing capability over the semester that has been for the better.
• Who is my primary audience? Who is my secondary audience?
• My primary audience for this paper will be Dr. Bell, since she is the one I'm trying to convince with this paper.
• The secondary audience would be my fellow classmates. They are the secondary audience, since they too will be the only people likely to read this essay. Some of them at least.
• What do my audiences already know or believe about my topic?
• What my main audience knows or believes depends entirely on what Dr. Bell remembers of my papers. The important things to remember would primarily be common errors and strengths in the papers. In general the vast majority of the classmates would have no idea what my past papers were about, let alone their contents.
• How will I organize and develop my ideas to make them convincing to these readers.
• The way I plan on organizing the reflective essay is to first quote my previous works to show the error/strength. After that I would explain the quote to highlight what was good and/or bad. I would then give a rewrite, if necessary, and explain the rewrite. I believe this is an effective way to show the change my writing capabilities have undergone.
• How will I establish my ethos (relationship and tone) with my readers?
• The main way I plan on doing this is to not sound like a spoiled brat or a whiner. I want to present myself as a calm person that is giving a rational analysis on how I write and what I had written.  The reason is that I believe this would be an appropriate tone considering that the primary audience is Dr. Bell.

Graded Blog Post 36

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/5556249000

Here are my answers to the five questions asked on page 246 in A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing 36th Edition.

1. "What type(s) of writer do you consider yourself to be?"
1. I would consider myself to be a hybrid of the procrastinator (a habit I plan on changing) and heavy revisers type of writers, as well as dash of the heavy planners, since I tend to think about what I am going to write in between classes.
2. "Have you Changed your process to Incorporate approaches from different writer identities?'"
1. I'm a tad bit confused about what a writer identities is. If it means my classmates then the answer is no. If it means Dr. Bell, than I did try and incorporate a priority rankings in what I do.
3. "In what ways has your approach to writing changed because of a particular assignment, activity, or concept you have learned?
1. I had learned from the first assignment to pay much closer attention to the explanation of my quotes, since they tended to be more summary than analysis.
4. "What does you writing process look like? Has it shifted throughout the course of the semester? Does it change for different writing situations?"
1. It primarily goes like this type draft than send out the draft to trusted editors that ends with my revising based on what I see and what the editors responded with.
2. The process has shifted in such a way that what the editors say has had less of an impact on my paper. Consequently, I have been relying more on self-revision as time has gone by.
3. If it is really really big, I would send it out to be revised multiple times.
5. "Did you try any new or different approaches to writing this semester? What Worked? What didn't work? What might you try in future writing situations"
1. The only new or different approach was the cluster mapping. and I found that particular method to not be as helpful to me. I may just get over the anxiety I have of being judged by strangers and sign up for writing help.

Graded Blog Post 35: Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Cartoon

The context of the political cartoon is that many countries including the United States are limiting the access of refugees going into the country due to terrorist attacks that happened in European countries that were supposedly caused by terrorists disguised as refugees. The audience of the cartoon appears to be Americans, perhaps those that are turning a blind eye to cold shoulder to the refugees in Europe and elsewhere. I believe that this is the audience, since other nations except for the Native Americans would not be as greatly affected by the image shown than Americans.

source:https://www.flickr.com/photos/cavatappo/5206351285

 The message is that the founders of the colonies were refugees themselves, and there wouldn't be a United States if the Native Americans didn't accept the refugees. This leads to the purpose of that we should be paying more attention to and not turning away refugees from the Middle East. The information you need in order to better understand the cartoon is the American version of thanksgiving. Also, knowledge that the pilgrims were persecuted because of their religion, and they sought religious freedom by heading to North America. This makes the pilgrims themselves refugees.