reading!

The reading for Thursday was ironically about reading. It talked about how to read and strategies to help you read and retain the information. I definately got a lot out of the reading. I have a hard time understanding what I read sometimes especially if it's tough information. However, I thought some of the things said in the book were not helpful. For instance, I don't think it's necessary to count the words or syllables in a word in order to understand what your reading. I think annotating is very helpful to understand reading. It helps you to break down the text and look at things individually rather than as a whole. Many of the things talked about are not necessary for all the reading you do such as summarizing or identifying patterns. These are especially not needed for pleasure reading or for readings that you understand. These tips could however be useful in reading for a class or a report.

who knew?

Proofreading and editing are not the same thing. I'm sure many people, as well as myself were not aware of this. I always figured they were one in the same. When editing, it's necessary to read through every word, sentence, and paragraph to make sure they all fit together nicely. When proofreading, you need to make sure you spelled everything correctly and used the right words in the right places. I was stressing about getting everything perfect for my first paper and how hard it was going to be. Then, I read these few pages about editing and proofreading and it put me at ease by providing many helpful tips. After reading this, I definately think I will have an easier time revising papers from now on.

assessing and revising

The first part of today's reading was about assessing your writing. If your writing just for yourself, for example in a journal, just let your thoughts wander. Don't worry about your writing being sloppy or unorganized. When writing for others, we need to make sure to get our points across because we often won't be there to clarify it with the reader. Make sure your writing reflects the point your trying to get across to your reader. Also, make sure you give the reader enough background in your writing so that they understand your points.
Before turning in your complete finished product, make sure you get a response from an outside source. A well trusted source will help you improve your writing. When revising your paper, start with the biggest topics or errors and move your way to the smaller ones. The smaller errors will usually work themselves out once the bigger ones have been dealt with. Sometimes it's helpful to just completely rewrite your rough draft to get a fresh start. The reading for today was definitely very helpful. It had good advice on how to edit and revise your paper.

A little of Everything

It was ironic that part of the reading due for class today was about drafting because our first draft of our first paper is due today. I actually wrote my paper before reading the material, but looking back, I wish I would have read this because it may have helped me a bit. I tried to sit down and write my paper all at once and expected it to be perfect. However, writing takes time and it's not going to be perfect on the first try.
The next part of the reading talks about adding detail to make the reader feel as if they were there. While reading the story by Scott Sanders about him working with dad, I felt as if I was there the way he described his feelings and the smells. After reading this, I realized that I need to add onto my story to make the reader more interested and feel as if they were there.
When writing my story, I used chronological order, I started from the earliest event, and worked my way to the latest event. Flashbacks can help add life to a story. The flashback told in the story by Williams, added detail and imagination to the story. But, you also have to be careful not to add too much detail. Too much detail can take away from the main idea of the story.
Dialogue can also help add interest to your story. It can also help the reader feel more involved in the story if they hear the conversations that were going on. When adding dialogue, you have to make sure to use the correct punctuation for the type of dialogue being used. You also need to consider what kind of purpose you want the dialogue to have. Don't just add it for no reason, make sure it has a reason for being there.

The first story by Tanya Barrientos caught my attention. I liked how she talked about her struggles to fit into a group. She wasn't american looking so she didn't fit into the "americans" but yet she wasn't spanish speaking so she didn't fit into the "latinos". However, the next story titled "Learning to Read" was not as easy to read as the first. It was an interesting story but the writing was not as well written and easy to read as the first. I thought it was interesting that Douglas said he was jealous of the fellow slaves that did not know how to read because the reading made him aware of how awful his life as a slave was. When reading the exerts from Malcolm X's autobiography, I was in awe that someone could have that much curiosity to copy the whole dictionary. The story "Mother Tongue" written by Amy Tan really shows the stuggles that foreigners face when coming to America only knowing how to speak "broken" English. It shows the disrespect and unequal treatment they receive. In the story written by Rose, he talks about how he had no desire to learn until he found something that he thought was worth learning about, chemistry. I think many people feel this way. Unless it's something they have a desire to learn about or something they feel will be used in everyday life, they don't care about learning.
Until class on Thursday, I had never done anything like freewriting where you write nonstop for a certain amount of time. After reading about it in the assigned reading, I learned how it can be helpful. It can help you get all your thoughts and ideas about a topic out onto paper. Looping, helps you gather your thoughts and seems like it might keep your thoughts a little more organized. Listing helps you brainstorm a topic or topics that interest you to write about. I think clustering is too complicated to generate your ideas. Questioning helps you think about the basic ideas of the topic that your going to write about. Most papers written in high school or college require an outline to be written. So I think outlining is very helpful because if you start off with an outline, it makes it easier to write the paper. I liked what the book said about draft writing. It's supposed to be simple and quick and doesn't have to be perfect or neat. This will be very helpful advice for writing.

The Golden Rule

In the reading, it talks about why your writing, who your writing for, what type of writing is necessary, and what type of presentation your writing should have. Your attitude is conveyed through the tone of writing. The voice of the writing needs to suite the purpose of the writing. Writing is judged differently by different people. For example, in the story "Proficiency", used in the book, the people grading Shannon's writing didn't like the way she wrote. On the other hand, her teachers thought she was a great writer. This shows that everyone judges writing in different ways.
One quote used in the reading stated,"Do unto audiences as you would have the do unto you." This quote is saying that if you want to be respected by your audience, then you need to be respectful and considerate when addressing them. It is helpful to bring people to life with you dialogue. Give examples of as many senses as you can to make the reader or listener feel as if they were really there. When writing, keep in mind your purpose, and who your trying to get your idea across to.