Let's Find Out How To Read....

Today’s assignment was reading strategies. We all know how to read, right? That’s exactly what I was thinking when I looked at the chapter before I read it. When I think about reading I think about reading for pleasure or reading textbooks for school. When I read for pleasure I am usually very precise, knowing what I am reading about and giving myself a little summery every once in a while before I go on. When I am reading a textbook for school I usually just skim and scan the chapters or paragraphs for the main points that I think I might need.
As I was doing my assignment today I learned that I’m not completely wrong, but I’m also not completely right about how to read. They said the same things as me about some strategies to reading such as; skimming and scanning etc. What I didn’t think of when thinking about reading strategies is all the other things that they mentioned. I know how to do them all but I just never really thought about using them to read. They say you should preview a text first before you read it, to kind of get a feel for what you are about to be reading. I think that is a good strategy; it’s about the same as skimming over something before you read it, normally how I do things. They also talked about annotating, which is highlighting key words or phrases and seeing how the different ideas connect to the reading. This is also a strategy that I have used many times before but never would have thought of as a reading strategy. When I read a textbook it’s all about highlighting the main points. I like to highlight them so when I go back over it to study I know exactly what I have to study and where it’s at in my book, making things so much easier. Like I said when I am reading for pleasure I like to summarize to myself what is going on in the text so it is easier for me to remember. They say the exact same thing, summarizing can make it easier to pick out the main points or how the ideas relate to each other. Something that I have never really thought of before are patterns in writing. This could be anything; recurring words or phrases, or even the use of the same person over and over again. Identifying these patterns can make the reading experience a whole lot easier.
It wasn’t a bad reading; I definitely did not like it as much as some of the past ones. It was a good thing though because like I said, we all know how to read right? Well, I guess that is wrong. I guess I judged to quickly because I actually did learn a little something from this.

Analyzing!!!

Today I was assigned reading over analyzing texts, boring right? Well, actually it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Most of the readings were actually pretty interesting. They say that with magazines and newspaper or television ads they might all cover the same thing but each one interprets them differently. If TIME magazine did an article on the reality show, John and Kate Plus 8, it would have a whole different interpretation then if Cosmopolitan did an article. Yes, they are both magazines, but the interpretations differ because of the targeted audience or just the stature of the magazine.
I enjoyed most of the readings, but I really liked William Safire's analysis of the Gettysburg Address for the Americans of 9/11. He showed the connection that President Lincoln had with 9/11 when he presented the Gettysburg Address and how it effects the Americans now. This would be a tough document to analyze, especially with all of the old English to filter through. I know that when I am reading over a text I usually just skim and scan. In this case that is not what you need to do. I think that all of the readings were pretty good examples of analyzing, but in my opinion I think that William Safire did it the best. He tried bringing the text alive with examples that show how it is relevant to us now.
All in all this was a long, but relevant reading assignment. I can't say that I didn't enjoy some parts of it.

-Caley

Too Much Editing..

Today for English 103 I read Editing and Proofreading. The main point was, obviously, to edit and proofread all of you paper thoroughly. Now, I am all for proofreading something a few times before you turn it over to someone else. They say that you should look at every paragraph and sentence individually and edit it that way. They also say to look at each individual word and make edit that way.
I agree with them in the aspect that you can't turn in second grade writing to an employer and expect to get the job. What I don't really agree with is the fact that they say you should be editing so much. In my opinion and past experiences I think the paper may come out worse if there is too much editing and proofreading done to it. When you first writing something down those are your best points, after editing so much one may find them unnecessary and take them out. That is a major reason why I think over-editing is a problem.
All in all it was a good reading assignment, I just didn't really agree with everything that they had to say. I like to proofread and edit my papers well, but not to the point of terminating the whole writing.

-Caley

Revising My First Draft - Caley Savoie

How should I revise my first draft? How should I go about looking for problems that need to be fixed in my paper? How can I revise my paper without being bias towards my own writing? These are all questions that most of you would probably ask yourself when you are revising a paper you have written. I know that I asked myself a few of these questions as I was revising my first draft over a narrative about technology.
First of all they say that when starting a revision look at the purpose of your paper. Should the thesis of your paper be at the beginning or towards the middle, which would make the purpose more clear to the reader. You also need to look at the audience you are writing to. Should you put in specific details in the beginning paragraphs that will help them relate to what you are writing? Having good support of evidence is good when revising. Make sure that what you have stated about your argument, you have enough evidence to back it up. Also, make sure that you can provide information to the reader that enables them to understand what you are saying. Donald Murray says, " The writer reads and rereads and rereads, standing far back and reading quickly from and distance, moving in close and and reading slowly line by line..." I took this as him saying that writers may revise too much. Others may take what he said differently, but I think that revising is a good thing, as long as there is a limit to where you stop. If a writer analyzes his/her writing too much, it could end up making the paper even worse than the first draft. In revising get someone else to read your first draft of a paper, preferably a writing teacher or tutor. Take what they have to say with a great assault and do the best you can to make it more reader friendly.
I know that for my first draft of my first paper for a college class I was a bit terrified. First of all I wasn't really sure on what to write. After I found a good topic I had so many ideas that I just kept writing them. In class we had a peer review session and the feed back that I received from my peers was that it was a good storyline but a bit repetitive. So I took that, along with my teachers' input and tried to do as much as I could to revise it. The reading that I have just blogged about, actually really helped me out with what I was struggling on in revising my first draft.

How Should I Go About Writing My Paper? - Caley Savoie

Today for my English 103 assignment I was to read a few chapters in my Norton Field Guide.  These chapters included various suggestions on how to start your writing and what things to put into your writing.  

First they talked about drafting, which is just coming up with multiple ideas for your paper.  They says it's best to first establish a schedule with strict deadlines to meet.  Such as; when you will have your rough draft done, when you will edit it, when you are going to proof read, and then the date that the final paper is due on.  I agree with them in saying that you should not wait until the last minute to try to write a paper.  Whenever this happens it always seems like you just can't think of anything at the last minute, right?  That is why it's a very good idea to get a jump start on your assignments and make it a priority to get it done before the deadline.  They also say to make yourself comfortable when you are writing.  I definitely agree with that, because I know that I need my space and quietness when I write, or I become easily distracted.  Writers block happens, right?  "Take a walk, take a shower, do something else.  Come back in a half hour, refreshed."  I know that taking a break for awhile, usually, helps me out. 

Description and detail is a must have in any writing, especially in a narrative when you are trying to tell a specific story.  There were a few stories in my reading that were examples of detailed writing, only one really stood out to me.  Nancy Mairs is an author with Multiple Sclerosis and she wrote about her disease.  "My left leg is now so weak that I walk with the aid of a brace and a cane, and for distances I use an Amigo, a variation on the electric wheelchair that looks like an electrified kiddie car."  In this sentence she does many things; she describes what she is feeling and what she can't do, she lists what she has to use to move, and as she is describing these things she gives detail so the reader can more clearly understand.  When organizing your paper they say that you can organize it in a chronological order or in other ways.  Just to make it easier on yourself writing, and make it understandable to the reader.  

In dialogue, it's good to use your words to describe a situation, but using other people makes it a bit more interesting.  They say that it's a good idea to use what the person in the story said in your writing to give the reader a better look at what really happened.  This brings more than one voice to the story and makes it more vibrant and interesting to the reader.  

All in all, not a horrible reading assignment.  Some of the readings were interesting; such as the 9/11 passage.  The description really caught my attention, and I guess that is the whole point. :)

Narratives - Caley Savoie

For today, I read a few chapters on Literacy Narratives.  Five stories that included the authors story about their life or a problem that occurred.  I enjoyed most of these stories, realizing that they all relate to most of the people in the world.  All of the readings were good examples of a piece of narrative writing and I think it will help me in writing mine.

At the end of each story there is a set of questions or statements to make you engage and review over what was just read.  Some of the statements were more suggestions on how to write a narrative than anything else.  Each of these giving you ideas and ways to really understand what you need in a narrative, and exactly what parts should be included.  

I enjoyed the first story most of the woman who was trying to take classes to learn her own native language.  This is engaging to read because she was looked as being different from her own race when she couldn't speak their language.  

I also read a chapter on Generating Ideas and Text.  This was a very helpful chapter as I will be writing my own narrative soon.  It gave great ideas for composing your own stories and how to start.  They say that pre-writing is key in starting your narrative.  They gave a few suggestions including; free writing, looping, listing, and clustering.  My favorite two to use are listing and clustering.  With listing you are able to get all of your ideas and write them down.  When I do lists I write down my most favorable to least.  In clustering you can get one main idea and put off other ideas and stories that go along with it.  This makes preparing and writing a lot easier.  

What affects the way one writes? -Caley Savoie

When writing in rhetorical situations, they say you should know; the purpose of your writing, the audience you will be writing to, the genre in which you will be writing, the stance you are taking, and the design of your text.  I agree with them in all of those aspects.  You can't just sit down and start writing without knowing to whom or what you are writing about. Unless, you are writing in a journal or in a calender, which you would be writing to yourself, you need to know the purpose, etc.  

They say that what you write, how much you write, and how you phrase it are all influences by the audience you envision.  Your audience, however, will interpret your writing according to their expectations and experiences.  The example that they give in the book with Jon and his mom; if she would have left the same note without Jon's name and the father read it, it may have been a whole different situation.  The father may not know everything that Jon knows, and in turn have no understanding of the message.  In my high school English class my teacher gave us many writing assignments.  One assignment I had to do was a debate with another classmate.  As soon as the assignment was given my teacher said to start researching.  Before I started to do anything I had to decide first; what position I was taking, who my audiences was that I would be writing or speaking to, etc.  The design is an important issue, you must decide what is appropriate and inappropriate text for this particular writing.

-Caley 

First Post!

This is my first blog post.  I will be posting writings from my English 103 class!!!

-Caley