Dear Writing Group,

I promise to come back and write you a sweet note detailing my appreciation for you. But, it is Monday morning, and school starts in fifteen minutes, and I am still at home. My apologies.

Sincerely,

Jenny Gorman

up late, once again

I did not mean to stay up until 3 a.m. It just happened. I spent most of my weekend working on homework, with only couple of hours devoted to things like work, church, and the middle school play (which was absolutely fantastic, by the way). I don't know what gave me the strength to stay up so late. Perhaps it was my drive to get an "A"? I really want one, and I had worked so hard up to this point that I was going to let just one more night of sleep get in the way. I guess I knew this would happen when I decided to completely rewrite my personal narrative from scratch. I'm surprised I actually got the narrative written in one weekend. If this class has taught me one thing, it is to stay up late and not the sleep get in the way of getting things done. Great lesson, eh?

My dearest Leyen, this is quite possibly the hardest, most frustrating thing I have ever attempted to do. I can write no more, for fear of going insane. Please excuse my short blog entry tonight, but this literally just took me ten minutes to type out. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGG!!!

"Follow the Leader, the Leader, the Leader..."

CELEBRATE! I have a lead and intro. Yes, I am devoting a whole blog to my blissful feeling of accomplishing the fist part of my film critique. Perhaps this because I am procrastinating the rest of it (at least it's not facebook...right?). But really, these are the first sentences of non-crap I have written in all my attempts to write about this awful movie.

Along those lines, this movie isn't actually as bad as I originally thought. The thing is, it is not entertaining, it is not fun to watch, and it is certainly not fun to think about. But those things aren't what make a film great, or even good. Those things make money. Revolutionary Road is more art than a story. If you can get past all the disturbing-ness (good luck with that...), this movie does have some redeemable qualities. They just don't involve special effects or a happy ending.

Today In Class

Today in class, we had two U of M representatives from the writing department come and get our feedback. I did not really like this, especially today. We had work to do: meet in our writing groups, discuss the film critique, and ask questions. I feel like we basically wasted half the time talking about things that wouldn't benefit us when there was work to be done. Our biggest problem in this class is obviously time, and this did not help. I understand the need to get our reactions and feedback. Why couldn't they come a different day? One that wasn't so crucial to our agenda? Or, they could have just had us write a cover-letter for the class. We're all amazing writers now, and I'm sure they're great readers. We had good discussions, found many consensuses, and debated some of the finer points of this class (blogging, reading). I just think it should have been at a different time.

The Fountainhead

Today, I was surprised. Indeed, I was amazed. I came upon a status that quoted a book I recently read, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I was astonished at who quoted one of my recently favorite books. It was not one of my fellow geek/nerds who I can talk to about literature all day. It was not a teacher, parent, or professor. It was one of those girls that you would never even expect to pick up a book, much less a 900 page, tiny print book with challenging vocabulary, sentences, and themes. You know, the party hard, school-doesn't-matter type? I am sad to say that I judged this young woman in the worst possible way. I could not help but comment, and we proceeded to have a quite in depth conversation about the book. I have learned to not judge people based on the appearance of who they might be. I have a complete newfound respect for my classmate.

p.s. Go read The Fountainhead. It is worth the time. It will blow your mind.

"I Want to be Where Your Barefoot Walks"

I want to be where your bare foot walks;
I want to be where your bare foot walks,
Because maybe before you step you'll look at the ground.
I want that blessing.
I open and fill; I fill with love and all other objects evaporate.
All the learning in books stays put on the shelf.
Poetry, the dear words, images of song,
Comes down over me like water.

This is how I would die;
Into the love I have for you; the love I have for you.

As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight
This is how I would die
Into the love I have for you

-Rumi

Thanks to Jessica for reminding me to do this assignment and for letting me copy-paste this poem into my post.

Our weekend assignment for choir is to write a one-page (single space-hah!) reaction on what this poem means to us. Apparently, as a high school choir, we don't spend enough time on the lyrics of the songs we sing. Therefore, our director would like to hear our 16-18 year old thoughts on love. Maybe he's going through a crisis or something, and would like to subject himself to 80 pages of that. Yes, I am being a little bit harsh on us high schoolers; of course we have important, meaningful things to say about love. Knowing our choir, we will probably come up with amazing things to write about. It's really not that bad of an assignment. I'm just annoyed that we have to do it, because I am sick of writing (me saying this, as I sit here writing, oh the irony). I think I'm going to go to bed before I talk/write myself into an atrocious mood.

Gross

I just sat through a two hour movie, and now I have to write a three page paper about it, joy. Maybe I should have just done something where I already knew the ending. I can't say I really enjoyed "Revolutionary Road." It was barely entertaining. It was dark, depressing, and overall just kind of sick. It grossed me out, and not just the twisted ending. Why would someone want to make a movie about this? And why would an actor/actress want to play one of these characters? And why would an 18 year old living in the 21 century find this movie appealing at all? Could someone please answer these questions for me?

Unfortunately, the world, aka Hollywood (which basically runs the world), has already informed me that this movie is amazing and so is the acting. Now, I have the job of figuring out exactly why they would think such a thing. Do you have to play a crazy person to be good at acting? Apparently. Ugh. I'm still grossed out.

Somehow, I will have to find a way to put away my biases and focus on the pure literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements of this movie. Sweet.

"I Wanna Be Sedated"

"Twenty four, Twenty four hours to go, I wanna be sedated"

Well actually, I have about three hours left before I hit my wall. I need to:

-write a conclusion

-tie up my loose ends

-add a bit more about characters

-make sure my focus is present

-put the dang staple in

"Nothing to do and no where to go-o-o..."

No wait, that doesn't work.

"So much to do and so little ti-i-ime, I wanna be sedated"

High School (senioritis?)

I have very conflicted feelings about highs school at the moment. I think there should be Senior Seminars, or something, for us to talk to fellow seniors about all senior-related things (advisement doesn't count). There are just so many things we have to think about right now.

On one hand, I am very excited to be at high school among my peers after my one year hiatus from high school (PSEO, of course). All the good little moments in school, even some of the actual school work we have to do, remind me of how wonderful it is to be in high school, surrounded by people who are in the exact same boat as you are. I seriously get choked up thinking about it, sometimes...

On the other hand, I am sick, sick, sick of high school. Everything from rude people in the cafeteria, to the rude people on prom committee, to the catty girls on the volleyball team, to the freshmen who think they're all that, to the...etc. You know what I mean? I just want to get out of here. College seems so much better, especially if you find something special like a soccer team or sorority or society. No stupid 14 year olds standing still in the hallway, or watchful administration that feels the need to know exactly where you are at all times during the day. A pass? Really? I feel like we're past that now...

Bah humbug. 76 more days guys.

Prom Committee

Today, I went to the Prom Committee meeting and silently laughed inside for a good half hour. I expected to find a group of girls talking valley-girl style about prom-related activities. I also expected that only one clique would most likely be involved. You know, those girls who don't really have a purpose in the high school social structure besides to socialize? You know who I'm talking about. I didn't feel like this group would be a good representation of our school. Instead, I found something much, much worse.

I walked into the North Lecture Hall, slightly apprehensive about who was going to be there, because I knew that none of my friends were on the committee. About 40 students showed up, mostly seniors, but some juniors. There was definitely more than one group of people represented, but not in the way I thought would be best. Sure, the girls-who-don't-do-anything were there, and I was surprised to see a couple guys there, including our homecoming king. There was also a large representation of the large African-American population we have here at CP. In these kinds of terms, the representation was just fine. The problem came with the type or the character of the people there.

For almost 40 minutes, people screamed and yelled at each other. The discussion topic was the theme for prom. Everyone had an opinion to share. And shared they did, at the top of their lungs. To try and get people to settle down, students yelled "BE QUIET! SHUT UP! STOP TALKING!" Others whistled loudly. The level of rudeness in the room was despicable and in no way a proper representation of the students of Champlin Park High School. I was quite appalled at the ridiculousness of the situation. I can't really change anything, so this ranting may be pointless, but I really just wanted you guys to know about my experience today.

One o' Clock

This is my new target bedtime. 15 minutes to go? I think I can do this. My freakout level has gone down from verge-of-nervous-breakdown to it's-one-o-clock-in-the-morning-I-don't-care. Not really, but close. I think the weather helps. And the fact that I got to work out today. As I started on my eighth page, I realized that I still had at least three full pages of information to type up. So, I decided to put that on hold and ask my little writing group what they think about it. All of this information is interesting, in my opinion, but is it necessary? We shall see...

School
Homework
Eat

School
Homework
Eat
Sleep

Repeat...

Let's do it, folks!

Fog

I hate fog. Scares me to death. There is something about driving home late at night, not being able to see more than 20 feet in front of you, that freaks me out. I get the chills just writing about this.

My first experience very negative experience with fog came only months after getting my drivers license. I was on 109th, before they put more lights in, on my way home from a friend's house. The field to my right was all but pushing the dense fog in front of my tiny little car. My headlights were reflecting off the water droplets just five feet in front of me. I couldn't see a thing. I tried turning my lights off, like I had seen other people do. I was pitched into total darkness. I gave a little scream and quickly corrected my mistake. The grey wall pressed in around me. I felt like one wrong move and I would disappear and float away with the fog.

It is unnerving to completely lose your sense of direction and motion, both of which are based off the objects around you. When these are gone, you are left with the occasional yellow line on the road in front of you. My knuckles gripped the cool wheel, my muscles were tense, and my eyes jerked around, searching for signs of danger. My basic survival instinct roared at full power. I wanted so badly to pull off the road and call my parents to come get me. It took all my mental strength to will myself put down my clutch and shift into the gear that would take me home.

p.s. Could this be a possible personal narrative topic? I really need to rewrite mine. Your thoughts, please.

Freakout.

I am currently freaking out. How on earth am I going to put 22 pages of notes together? How am I going to make 10 pages flow? How am I going to do this in one measly day, much less afternoon? Where am I going to find time to revise and edit this whole thing this week? Will I get any sleep? As much as I plan ahead, I cannot see this week going smoothly. At all. I know we've spent class time preparing, but nothing can really prepare you for writing a 10 page paper in one week. No way, 'cause sorry, but I don't exactly have a whole weekend to devote to writing. All I have time to do is work, sleep, and go to church. Not to mention the calculus worksheets I don't understand, or the personal narrative I need to rewrite. I shall resign myself to another week of no sleep. Yippy Skippy. Two and a half weeks until this torture is over? THANK GOODNESS!

Finding my Focus

I expected to go into a house of 40 girls and find tons of drama. From my experiences in high school, I know that when you get any number of girls together for a certain amount of time, in a specific place, stuff happens. This was probably my strongest pre-ob bias. It was also the most untrue characteristic of the women of AXO. From what I could tell in the short time I was there, there are no incongruities, contradictions, or controversies. I tried very hard to find such things. I dug as deep as I could in my interviews, but nothing came up. The closest thing I could find was a few rivalries with other sororities. I don't have some big, exciting piece of dirt. While this may seem like an inconvenience, I think it actually provides the heart of my paper. This amazing group of women defy the drama-odds. There are bound to be little juicy stories here and there, but they are so inconsequential compared to what the group is as a whole, that I could not discover them. Given more time, perhaps, but "it is what it is," as Ms. Mork would say.

First Contact Story

So I actually kind of did this already, but in notes/observation form. It helps me organize my thoughts better than narrative style. I hope you can follow!

Sent mass email to all sororities' presidents at the U
Received a reply from Brette, President of Alpha Chi Omega
Worked out details, got address, drove down to the U
Found the AXO house on the corner of University and 4th St SE
Walked up, rang the doorbell
Answered, explained who I was
Greeted in living room, chatted a bit, started taking notes
Brette, my cultural broker, came down, gave me a quick tour
Went back down to chill before dinner
Ate dinner, was nervous about proper etiquette
Everyone was welcoming and nice, answered questions if asked
Mostly kept distance, didn't ask me questions
Did ask about what I'm doing, my high school, and college plans
Talked for awhile after dinner while Brette was out
First impression was, "wow, what a normal group"
Had some questions about certain Greek things
Was excited to get to know them more
Knew there was more to learn

No More AXO

So today was my last visit to Alpha Chi Omega (AXO). This makes me very sad. Although I was not an official member of the U of M sorority, from the moment I walked in, I felt welcomed. The AXO girls are something special, and I have learned a couple life lessons just in the short time I spent with them. I won't share them here, I'll save that for the actual paper, but I felt I needed to say that not only did I get to study a culture, I learned from them. These aren't your typical "legally blonde" sorority girls. These young women have their stuff together. They are a family like no other. I am actually very jealous of their amazing bonds. If I weren't going to Florida, I would definitely join a sorority, whether AXO at the U, or different one at UT. This was a very special group, and I am very excited to write about the sisters of Alpha Chi Omega.

Young at Heart

This video was exactly the mid-morning pick-me-up I needed (Needless to say, I would take a caramel latte if available). My day would have seriously sucked without the hilarious movie/ethnography we watched today. I could not help but laugh at the things the "grandparents" said. Eileen was my favorite. I cannot believe a 92 year old would talk like that! I guess I'm just used to the old church ladies. It was amazing to see how much the choir meant to the grandparents. It helped their social, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. This is like their family. It's kind of like high school. There are different types of people, but really, everyone is in the same boat. They can talk about their journey, even if they led a completely different life from the others. They can relate to stiff joints, nonworking body parts, and general grandparent stuff. This video reassured me of the value in every single individual at every single point in their life. When people come together, they can do amazing things.

Live From Haiti

At approximately 12:30 a.m. last night, Sheri and I were putting the final touches on our paper. While we were waiting for it to print out, we decided to click on the "Next Blog" button at the top of the blogger site. The first site that came up was a lovely blog on the Johnson family, pictures and all. We thought that would be quite awkward to share your whole family story with the world. Not wanting to creep on this random family, we clicked the "Next Blog" button again. Up comes the blog "Live From Haiti." We lost it. After spending hours upon hours researching and writing about Haiti, this was just too much. Who would've thought? This blog originally started as an account detailing the writer's trip to Haiti. They continued it with the latest news or describing history from Haiti. Some of the blogs were exactly the information we found elsewhere, all compiled into an easy to read format. We thought this was quite ironic, given that our research paper is about Haiti. Looking back and writing about this situation this morning, it does not seem as funny as it did last night. It's amazing what hours spent together with one person can do to one tiny little situation. A pure coincidence becomes absolutely hilarious.

Personal Narrative #2

So basically, I messed up my personal narrative. Instead of writing about a singular event with a very definite climax, I told a story over a long period of time. This involved mostly internal thoughts and very little dialogue. (By the way, I just corrected a misuse of a comma in my last sentence. I think I'm starting to get this editing thing). While my paper was "very clean" in terms of criteria #4, editing and such, my paper lacked development of the story. This is probably the worst I have ever done on a writing assignment, but that doesn't mean I am going to go cry about it. I am determined to learn from my mistakes. Now that I know how a personal narrative should be written, I can do this right. I kind of need a whole new story, though. I tried unsuccessfully to narrow my current story down. This seems like a lot of work, but I think it will be much easier now that I am familiar with the process. I sure hope our research paper goes better! (It will).

A Different Kind Of Ice Queen

She sits there silent. Not a word escapes her frail mouth. Her appearance whispers with a menacing intensity, "I do not care what you think." The world does not even pause to notice her anymore. It stops briefly, but she pushes it on its way. She coolly evaluates her surroundings; they are of no importance to her. She is an ice queen, indifferent to those who would melt the barrier she works so hard to keep.

Her hunched shoulders reveal otherwise. She is not the queen every young girl strives to be. She walks stooped over, as tho walked on too many times before. She suffers from some invisible force, never quite taking over, but enough to keep her in the shadows.

Then, she opens a book.

To Be Continued...

Relationships

Relationships are some of the most important things we can have in life. Beyond basic physiological and safety, as seen in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, relationships are the next "need" that build onto the essence an individual. Relationships, whether family, friends, or a loved one, make the mechanics of life worth everything. Yes, we need food to simply survive, but think of how much better a meal is when it is shared with those we care about. Perhaps this is why Thanksgiving and Christmas are really all about the food. Similarly, the human race needs sex to survive, but what does it become when you get to share that intimacy with someone you love? When some of our safety nets, such as employment or health, fail, we are left with only our relationships to help pull us back up.

Humans are not meant to be alone. We are, by nature, social creatures. Because of the importance of our social well-being, we must nurture and take care of our relationships. We have all learned hard, personal lessons in this realm, be it a break-up, divorce, fight, or any other thing that pushes us away from each other. Even introverts need people to at least understand and love them.

On a larger scale, groups, organizations, and countries all must take care of their relationships. With so many more people involved, there are many more people that can be hurt. While this may seem a pessimistic view, this also means that there are that many more people to be loved. However we think about about life and our inner self, we realize that our relationships must be cherished and cared for before we can truly live.

"What does it matter anyways? We only really live in each others' hearts."

Is it Really Almost Mid-term?

A few items on the sharing agenda today:

Google Docs: is amazing. The wonders of technology never cease to amaze me. Please read Sheri's blog for a full report.

Teamwork: Speaking of my fellow writer, our collaboration is going very smoothly. Having someone else to be accountable to, especially one that you see every day, is very motivating in the anti-procrastination realm.

Comments: I feel like we do not read, thus not comment, enough on each others' blogs. I am the first to admit to failure in this department. We are all A students, I think, and can go above and beyond the "2 comments a week for an A" suggestion. This blog is not about a grade. It is about becoming better writers and helping our peers become better writers.

Practice: Speaking of... I am finding it difficult to find things to blog about. I know we discussed this in brief during class, but still. After a whole day of working on a research paper, the last thing I want to do is write some more about something else and catch up on reading other blogs (see above admittance on comments). Can you relate? Along the same line, I find it difficult to blog everyday, nut maybe that is just me.

Ethnography: I am sure most of you have already started, but I am very excited for my first observation of my micro-culture! I am going to be learning about the Alpha Chi Omega sorority at the U. Hooray!

FSTI ch 27

For those of you who have not had a chance to read the wondrously insightful twenty seventh chapter of FSTI, this is the basic outline for your paper that the book suggests. Keep in mind, this is the outline specifically for analyzing an essay. We can still use the information presented on argumentation and logic. For further details, see the book.

Formal Introduction

· identification

· summary

· thesis

Analysis and Argument

· describe

· analyze

· interpret

*don't forget to use examples and quotes for evidence

Refutation and Rebuttal

· consider the other side

Conclusion

· tie it all together

Writing the First Draft

· don't force the form, but use it

Spacial Organization

I greatly enjoyed today's exercise. Like Mrs. Mork, I am also a very spacial person. I do prefer post-it notes, though, they don't move when you don't want them to. Being able to move small sections around made it easier to organize the information without having to get into the details. Seeing the form of -- (how the note cards look) helps make sure you have enough of the right information in the right spot. Tonight when I take notes, I am going to put each idea/note (plus source!) on a mini post-it note, then put it by the big, colorful post-it note. Maybe I'll throw some color coding in too. I'm pretty sure I will use this method in all the rest of my research papers, it works so well!

Side Note: I am kind of nervous about the history/background section of our paper. There is a ton of information out there, and we have to condense it down into 3-4 paragraphs, yikes!

Another Side Note: I loved hearing about my writing group's papers. The topics are super interesting and I am excited to read them.

Research Topic: Haiti

Rejoice! Sheri and I have discovered a research topic that we are ready to fly with. We are both passionate about helping people and giving back to society. Along with my special interest in global human rights, this led to our finding Haiti. This country has recently been wrecked with unimaginable disaster, but there is more to their problems than just last month's earthquake. We want to persuade our audience (that's you) that there are major problems, we need to care about them, and there are solutions that could work. This seems like a lot to cover, especially when you throw in the need for background info or the likely necessity of bringing up U.S. foreign policy. But, there is enough information out there that I think we can narrow it down enough to get what we need to make our point. Here we go!

Note Taking (FSTI ch 32)

Switch up!

Chapter 32 described note taking as a thinking process, not just a method of copying words. Critical reading is a big part of note taking . It means reading what really matters and understanding the important parts. It must get you thinking about the source and how oyou can use it. The authors really stress the importance of a bibliography, especially used to avoid plagiarism, which is often accidental. They specify the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing, even if you site the source, must be done in you own words. Sometimes, this is quite difficult. They have a really great strategy that I successfully used in my annotated bibliography today. Read through the information (critically, of course), then put it away (as in out of sight) while you recall the important points and how they could apply to your paper. Then, go back and check your notes with the information and fix any issues. This strategy worked very well for me. I would suggest trying it if you are having trouble paraphrasing in your own words.

The Final Staple

It has never felt so good to put the final staple in that paper. This paper was very difficult for me, but I learned a lot. I am nervous for my grade, though. But there's not time to think about that now, because we are on to our research paper. I am super excited for this. I have written several of these, so I am quite familiar with the process and format (including MLA, which is a beast). And, most excitingly, I get to write this with a partner! Some one will always be there to bounce ideas off of. The only trouble me and Sheri have right now is finding a topic. I suppose we will need to research topics before we can research one topic. Research paper, watch out, 'cuz here we come!

Editing Part 2

I have a newly found respect for my fellow classmates. The editing groups on Thursday went extremely well. I am not used to working with people who are so good at writing. Even in my college writing classes last year, those students did not know their stuff as well as this class does. I never really liked editing groups before, but now they seem essential to my writing process in this course. They made quality suggestions that applied to the class, fixed my comma errors, and provided overall feedback that I could work with. To find a group of 20 or so students who can do these kind of things is pretty sweet, and I highly respect everyone as writers. I may not get an A+ in this class, but I know I am among CP's finest writers.

Editing

Wow, we covered a lot of information in class today. While now these things seem like common sense, it brings back painful memories of learning the information in the first place. Comma splices, be verbs, and homonyms just sound like a writer's worst enemies. Although it takes more brain power than usual to consider all of these things in a paper, I'm glad that they are considered tools to be used, not analyzed. Three cheers for not having to "learn" grammar, punctuation, and spelling! (By the way, I definitely just misspelled grammar and the computer notified me of my error). It's refreshing to have these things expected of you. That doesn't mean it makes them super easy though. I'm glad that we will have all hour tomorrow to work with our group. Editing? CHARGE!!!

Peer Editing

I greatly enjoyed my first peer editing group (the second for everyone else). It was really nice to receive feedback that related specifically to the things we learn in class. My paper was kind of off focus, and my group definitely helped remind me of the things I need to be working on. Specifically, I need to work on describing the set, developing my characters, and adding things like dialogue, personification, and a metaphor. I really wish we had more time to work with our papers. I had so many questions that I wanted to ask! Reading through my group's papers also helped me. It gave me a general sense of what this paper is supposed to be like, which is something I needed. This paper isn't good to go yet, but we're on the home stretch!

Reflection on My Writing Process

I'm almost at a loss for what to blog on seeing as I don't have a field day, peer editing group, or class time to talk about. But, seeing as this is a composition class, I shall reflect on my writing process. It's probably too early to draw conclusions, but I always over analyze, especially when something isn't working. It helps me cope.

I thought I had a pretty good system. It always gets the job done without too many tears. This new way of pre-writing really bugs me. Why should I write ten pages of "crap" to get four good pages of the "real story"? This seems very inefficient. (By the way, inefficiency is a big pet peeve of mine). I tried something new. I don't think it worked. I have very little motivation to write without a concrete purpose. I reverted back to my post-it notes, created a solid outline (in this case, time line), and found the flow to my story. All this, in much fewer words and time. Well, I guess I tried it.

WARNING: Road Block!

If you have been reading my blog, or been in class everyday last week, you may have noticed that I am a little behind. I have hit a road block in my personal narrative. I'm just not used to writing about myself. Give me a book to analyze or a topic to research and I can deliver you an A paper. This whole personal thing is a bit more difficult for me. This is puzzling because I love to talk about myself. I over analyze everything in my life, my conversations, my relationships, you name it. It is so easy for me to use words to explain how I feel. Talking or writing a situation through is usually how I get to the bottom of it. I could easily spew out a 4 page analysis on my thought process and the college decision process. When it comes to actually telling a story, I freeze up. I have never been a good oral story teller, it's not something that comes naturally to me. I guess this translates into telling a story in a "nice little package" for an audience. I understand why we start with this particular assignment. We practice our writing with a subject we are familiar with. I am quite unfamiliar with this. When was the last time I had to write one of these? To me, a ten page research paper is much simpler. But a personal narrative is the assignment. I just need to figure out how to use my current skills in a new way. I can do this! I think...

Cultural Informant

Eek! Or should I say greek! I just emailed about 15 sororities at the U of M in my attempts to find a micro culture and cultural broker. I hope one of them responds with a "Yes! Sure, come on over!" I tried to sound as non-creeper as possible, but it is rather difficult when you are randomly asking people if you can come study them. I thought that a sorority would work well because they all live together (usually) and there is bound to be dirt or drama. Plus, my personal narrative ended up being about a clique, and what better defined exclusive group is there than the greek?

Learning to Write

Time for business. I've been down for the count the past week, but I am back and ready to write, at least I hope. It has been very discouraging to not see your lovely faces and hear all the wonderful stories you have to share. Also, the couch isn't the most inspiring place to work. Now that I have my fix of Disney, HGTV, and TLC, I've got work to do. As suggested in chapter 4, I am pre-writing. I don't really have an aim or theme to this. I have an idea. I will tell you the story of how I learned to write.

I credit my early writing skills to my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Byrnes, and my dad. In elementary school, I was pretty good at the English/writing things we did in class. Remember DOL, bare books, and spelling tests? Language came naturally to me. At one point during the year Mrs. Byrnes decided to have a writing assignment every week. Yes, one paper per week. They were only one page little blurbs, but I thought she was crazy. Nevertheless, I plugged away. I wrote about a tea kettle, my favorite kind of apple, and a killer personal narrative that was very traumatic for a fourth grader. At every step of the way my dad was there to encourage and teach me. I learned about sentence structure, "be" verbs, organization, flow, word choice, and more. I wasn't very good at any of it yet, but it laid the foundation that got me where I am today. Mrs. Byrnes knew what she was doing. The only way to get better at writing is to practice.

p.s. How do you write about the time in your life where you were just plain stupid? Kind of goes against nature here...

My Negative Voice

I fully intended using this blog entry to pre-write, as seen in chapter4, before writing my second crappy draft. I need to write a second crappy draft because as we were doing the writing exercises in class on monday, I realized (that) my first story did not fulfill the requirements for a personal narrative. It did not clearly exhibit an old self to new self pattern, nor were my feelings about it strong enough to write about it. Thankfully, I quickly found a passionate alternative that fits the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, I have taken medications that now prevent me attempting to think (or not think?). So, I shall reflect on FSTI chapters 1-4, 7-9. (What's wrong with 5 and 6?)

As I read this introductory college writing textbook, I am slightly appalled. Where is all of this information coming from?! Why have we not learned it yet? Do the curriculum writers feel that younger students aren't ready for this level of writing? If I had known this earlier, I might enjoy writing papers more, and I might have written them better! I recently read through copies of my papers throughout my career as a writer. Sometimes, I didn't even recognize that it was me speaking. I also was unsure as to the meaning of some of the words I used. Chapter 3 has taught me otherwise. Voice is very important and it MUST be pure, clean, and innocent (yes, I know I could edit these extra adjectives out, deal). If it needs to be cleaned up to be more formal later during the editing stage, this is fine. I really need to work on letting my voice come through.

I could rant all day about the idiots who came up with our educational system. Really, it's my pet peeve. Students need to be held to a higher standard. Unfortunately, the way it works is, by the time you get up to the highest level of English class in high school, there are only 21 kids in the class. Yes, I know this is technically a college class, but still. If they would have taught us all how to write better freshman year, middle school, elementary school, bah humbug, even kindergarten, maybe CIS English would be the norm. I'm just saying...

Please excuse my negativity. I was working on letting my voice come through in a conversational way?

Microcultures

Now I can't decide! There are so many different options, rules, and considerations, oh the possibilities. Knowing me, I will try to do something very difficult. Hopefully I can prevent this by following the two and half page, fourteen point guideline. I think it is a great idea to study something you want to go into, like pharmacy for Sheri. But you see, THIS is what I want to go into. I promise I'm not kidding, read my post from yesterday. I am also quite interested in education. Seeing as I have spent most of my life in this field, and likely have at least six more years in college, this seems like a viable option. But what part of education?

College and college decisions have been a big part of my senior year. I'm wondering what actually happens in the admissions office? See, at the small private Christian college I am going to, I personally know most of the admissions office. I grew up with my admissions officer! This is most likely a special case,but what about different ones? Ones that must reject thousands of candidates, sometimes crushing their dreams? I know I can't exactly sit in on the selection process. Maybe I can study the people who make these decisions, find out what makes them tick, how they got into this profession, etc. This idea working is going to be largely based off the availability of and admissions office letting me come in. Time to start emailing!

Studying Culture

This, is quite possibly what I would like to do with the rest of my life. I'm constantly being asked, what are you majoring in? Liberal Studies. What are you going to do with that? Until now, I didn't really have a good answer. It might take a bit more time in grad school, but I want to study how people live, what they do, why they live a certain way. Perhaps this comes from the realization of the significance of our connections with those around us.

Our relationships with other people are all we really have that matter. Remember when everyone put quotes in their instant messaging buddy info? I found this one in middle school, and it has always stuck with me. "What does it matter anyways? We only really live in each others hearts." I don't know where this quote is from, but I spent a long time thinking about it before I could begin to understand it. What is more important than our relationships? Besides things involved with religion, I can't really think of anything. This is why I want to learn about how other people relate to each other in new (to me) and different ways.

The first chapter of The Cultural Experience opened my eyes to the world of anthropology and ethnography. I am so excited to use new tools to learn about how to study culture!

My Writing Style

From Sight to Insight almost perfectly describes my writing process. Not each exact step necessarily, but rather the pattern my actions follow. I think it is very important for the writing process to be understood as vital part of the final product.

My favorite parts of the writing process are Discovering Form and Revising. Perhaps this is because these come the easiest for me. The two things I stress the most, my pet peeves if you will, are organization and sentence structure, which fit nicely into these to categories. If a paper is not organized, with a natural flow of logic, it is simply not finished yet. As for sentence structure, there is always a better way to say something. Admittedly, at times I have revised to the point where every sentence sounds like something out of a poem. Perhaps this is too much, but if a sentence has a poor structure, it will just tumble down, disrupting the flow of the paper (see organization, above).

My worst part of the writing process is most definitely Drafting. Because I focus so much on how words sound when put together, I find it difficult to get my thoughts down in an efficient manner. This is something I would like to work on.

To me, there is nothing better than putting that staple in the final copy. This makes every care taken on the meticulous details worthwhile.