Blog #9

English 102 has been an adventure. I feel my writing has grown tremendously. At the beginnining of the semester, I didn't want anyone to read my writing and was very unsure of myself when it came to writing. I took a telecourse for English 101 and did very well in it but didn't have the opportunity to correct my papers so I did not really feel like I learned a lot. While taking this class, I was surprised that I actually write well. The best compliment was when Kristen asked what field I was going into and I told her nursing. She said this was too bad and that was such a great feeling coming from her.

My first paper, the Evaluative Essay, was pretty bad. I can look back on it now and see many errors like my choice of words. Its funny, because I think I corrected and sent it back three times and it still could be better. This is the funny thing about English. Most papers can always be corrected no matter how many times the writer goes back and rewrites. There is always room for improvement.

My second paper, the Critical Analysis was unlike any paper I have ever written. It is very hard to sit back and analyze why certain characters are the way they are. I had never even thought to do this before. Once I accomplished this, it made my outlook on writing different than previously. I realized how much thought and preparation goes into writing.

Lastly, the research paper is a seemingly overwhelming project. After the outline and the annotated bibliography were done, the task did not feel so daunting. There are still many parts I am working on to improve it but I feel it is an informative and interesting paper.

Our readings from Everything's an Argument have been interesting. I have learned how to think critically and to question everything even if it seems right. Any source, credible or not, needs to be questioned. The readings were a great learning experience in how to think critically.

My studying skills have improved tremendously. I feel very capable of using computers to get the information needed for research. Worldcat has been a wonderful feature to work with when trying to find sources for reference. I am confident with my abilities now, where I wasn't before.

I plan on using my critical analysis, my research paper, and maybe a paper I wrote in English 101 that I thought was good. I think all of these will make a terrific portfolio.

Blog #8 Evaluation of Research Paper

It has been difficult this week. It helped a lot having all the sources there at my fingertips to study. I get overwhelmed if a project seems enormous to me and sometimes want to freeze and put it off. I have not been doing that with this though. It is hard to gather all the information about a certain part of the paper and put it together and keep doing that until it is done. This seems to work for me and helps me not to feel overwhelmed. I like to take a few days and not rush. This way, I am not as stressed and my paper turns out better.

I do find all the information very interesting and am more reassured than ever that I picked a great topic and that people need to do their research before getting vaccinated. I think the paper will be good at the end. I hope the rough draft is good. It will be helpful to get your comments so I can make it better.

Blog #7 Style and Humor

Humor to me is something that makes me laugh outloud or just put a smile on my face. Sometimes, when I am writing, I try to discreetly put in something humorous. It makes me laugh and hopefully makes the reader laugh also. Not everything that is funny to other people is funny to me. The article from The Onion was kind of humorous. It didn't make me laugh outloud but definitely got the point across and kept my attention while reading.

I tend to enjoy really immature comedies, like the new movie Knocked Up. I know it is stupid, but it made me laugh so hard that I cried. I think you also have to be in the mood to enjoy comedy, because after seeing it again, I thought "Why did I think this was so funny?" This is embarassing after telling everyone how funny the movie was.

While writing, I don't think you have to put in jokes or make it too obvious that you as the writer are trying to be funny. Little comments here and there that put a smile on the reader's face are enough. I don't really know how to define style. I would assume that it is the way in which you write your paper. There was a serious point behind the humorous writing from the article from The Onion which I liked. I think you need to decide before writing what you want the reader to walk away with and add in some humor to put a smile on the reader's face and keep the reader's attention.