Monthly Archives: September 2020

1.  “Dear Reader” Letter:  In a letter that begins “Dear Reader…,”  please reflect on the process of writing and revising your Personal Narrative.  Your letter may respond to the following questions.  These questions are intended to give you a general direction for the letter; you don’t have to answer all of them.  Your letter should be 400-500 words long and composed in paragraphs.  Please share it with me via Google Docs ([email protected]) by Tuesday, September 22nd.

–What were you trying to accomplish in your personal narrative?  What personal story were you trying to tell?  What political or historical issues were you tying that story to?

–What was your brainstorming and drafting process like?

–What are you especially proud of about this essay?

–How did the peer review process go for you?  What feedback was especially helpful?  What feedback was unhelpful?

–What parts of the process went most smoothly for you?

–Where did you struggle during the process of writing and submitting this essay?

–What would you have done differently if you had had more time?

–What does the reader learn about you from your personal narrative?

–What did you learn about yourself from writing this essay?

–What else would you like your reader to know?

2. Read “Rhetorical Triangles” (linked under “Texts” above).  Come to class on Wednesday, September 23rd  ready to define the three rhetorical modes illustrated in the triangle (ethos, pathos, and logos).

3. Bring an Ad to Class:  Search the internet for examples of presidential campaign ads from 2020.  Choose an ad that seems either interesting, effective, or attention-getting in some way and be prepared to share it with the class during our zoom call on Wednesday, Sept. 23rd.  This will mean having the ad cued up and in an open window on your screen when we start our call.

4. Rhetorical Analysis of Campaign Ad:. You will be sharing your ad, together with a written analysis of the ad, as a blog post.  This blog post should be shared by Sunday, September 27th.   I will share the instructions for this post separately – so stay tuned!

After reading both texts “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking The Shitty First Drafts” by George Dila the approach I follow when it comes to writing first drafts is Lamott’s method. Lamott describes letting energy flow free into the draft typing nonstop just to get thoughts out, but later tailors it to the way she wants when she does revisions. “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start
somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper.” (Lamott, Page 2) I agree with this statement because their are some times when I’m writing, it just sounds like its terrible and not constructed in a eloquent and thought provoking way. Writing can be hard, especially when writing an introduction because its hard to transfer your thoughts into coherent sentences that can captivate the reader. Lamott’s idea of “Shitty First Drafts” resonates with me because I have the same feeling when it comes to writing, I know it will not be prefect but I will strive to make it so after revisions. In “Rethinking The Shitty First Drafts” by Dila the author tries to dismantle Lamott’s work by saying it’s just unnecessary and that it is smarter to revise the same time while you write to make things more convenient. “In fact, I cannot even allow myself to write a shitty first sentence, let alone immediately follow the first with another few hundred shitty sentences. This does not mean that what flows from my brain through my fingertips through the keyboard and onto the monitor’s screen is exactly what I want it to be. In fact, I am a ruthless reviser, an eager re-writer.” Dila casts himself as an “eager re-writer” which shows the juxtaposition between Dila and Lamott. Dila always want to fix and rewrite while Lamott just simply wants to let her thoughts pour out and later down the line she can just revise them, to the point where she feels the most comfortable in her final draft.

1. Conferences: We are meeting today (Monday, 9/14)  via zoom for brief conferences.  Use our regular zoom meeting link to log on at your appointed time.  Please email me ASAP if, for some reason, you are not going to be able to participate.

12:00 – 12:15:  Emely Aguero, Shamima Tahaminah, Jose Perez

12:15 – 12:30:  Gabriela Aguilar Castillo, Joel Batz, Guadalupe Perez

12:30 – 12:45:  Devrani Brahimanand, Cheyenne Martinez, Cyrus Cruz

12:45 – 1:00:  Brenda Cortez, Oumar Diakite, Aamina Mohammed, Joseph Hamed

1:00 – 1:15:  Thierno Diallo, Asha Ighodaro, Rosalia Flores, Rasheed Hall

1:15 – 1:30:  Elijah Gonzales Viera, Nevontae McDowell, Tachmia Hasham

1:30 – 1:45: Anupa Gulab, Jesus Medina, Kemara Gopeesingh

2.  Peer Review:. The groups that you have been assigned for your conferences with me are also your peer review groups.  This means that you will be reading the personal narrative drafts that the members of your peer review group uploaded to our Google Docs folder and providing feedback.  If you have difficulty accessing your partners’ drafts, use slack to get their email addresses, so that you can figure out how to share the drafts.  Your peer review will happen in three ways:

— For each paper you read, you will be completing a peer review form.  Please make a copy of the document, fill it out, and (assuming this works out technologically) add it as a new page to the end of the document you are responding to.

–In addition to filling out this form, you will be adding comments directly to the drafts (make sure you are set to “comments” rather than “edit”, so that you are commenting on your classmates’ papers rather than changing them!).  Use this feature when you want to point out specific places in the draft where you think there is a problem with grammar, punctuation, or word choice or where you want to address a specific detail the writer has included.

–On Wednesday, September 16th in our zoom call, you will have a chance to speak directly to the other members of the group to discuss your drafts.

3. Read Richard Staub’s “Responding — Really Responding —  to Other Students’ Writing.”  You can find it under the “Texts” tab at the top of our blog’s home page.  Please share one takeaway from that essay in the form of a comment on this post.  What is one thing that you will try to keep in mind as you respond to your classmates’ drafts?

4. Submit the final version of your Personal Narrative essay by Sunday, September 20th.  You will be uploading your paper to turnitin.com.  Please be sure that your essay has a title; the title should give the reader some indication of what he/she should expect from the essay.

In “Chameleon” by Trevor Noah, Noah talks about his experiences growing up as a mixed child in South Africa. Noah recalls due to the color of his skin people would treat him differently, they would look at him in shock, confusion, and in awe. But since Noah was young he didn’t understand the reason why he was getting special treatment, he thought that he was being treated like that because “He’s Trevor”. Noah received special privileges because of the color of his skin for example, lack of punishment, and would often get away with warnings. “Growing up the way I did, I learned how easy it is for white people to get comfortable with a system that awards them all the perks.” (Page 3) Noah realizing this through experience shows how similar it is to white privilege in modern day America. White people are often privileged compared to minorities due to the color of their skin. Like when Noah would misbehave as a child he would get away, with a lot of things because of the color of their skin. White people could get away with a petty crime but if a minority would’ve committed the same offence, it would most likely be a harsher penalty due to the color of their skin. This is also similar to white privilege where white people wouldn’t have to be worried about “Stop and Frisk” or being pulled over while driving at home. White people are seen as more “innocent”, “pure” and “better” compared to minorities due to the fact that America has normalized segregation up until the 1960s. Since it took that long for America to abolish segregation shows a lot about its history, the government and the people have a strong biased against minorities because the color of their skin. Noah’s experience about being treated differently growing up in South Africa because of his skin color is very similar to modern day white privilege in America.

1. I am a second generation Jamaican raised in The Bronx. My family immigrated from Jamaica to America for a better life in 1991. Being an Jamaican I am proud of my culture and heritage, Jamaica most famously known for reggae and its cuisine. Growing up as a child I visited the country multiple times to reconnect with family and too see what’s it like to live their first hand.

2. Zinedine Zidane is my favorite soccer player and current coach of Real Madrid C.F, which is also my favorite team. Zinedine Zidane most famously played for Juventus F.C and Real Madrid C.F. Zidane is what got me into watching soccer, seeing his highlights on YouTube made me see soccer in a new perspective, a way I never thought I would before since I hated the sport. He coached Real Madrid and won 3 Champion leagues back to back even though he just started coaching. He is my idol because it shows how a person can come from almost nothing and work their way to the top.

3. I used to work out a lot when I was younger. I use exercise as a tool to de-stress myself. I liked working out because it gives me the physique I want, and it pushes me to become a stronger version of myself. Exercise used to give me a feeling of accomplishment that no other activity can compare too because of the hormones it releases throughout your body.

4. I enjoy listening to music, it is also another de-stresser I enjoy because music takes me to a whole new place mentally. It helps me relax and go on about my day because it puts me in a good mood.

5. I am an straight-forward person and is described as funny by my friends. I enjoy making people laugh because it is what genuinely makes me happy. However I do tend get serious when things start to irk me and not afraid to speak up for what I believe in.

After reading, “Shitting First Drafts” I feel like my writing style when it comes to essays lean towards Lamotts style then Dila’s style. I expect my first draft to my second draft to be on the shitty to mediocre side due to the inexperience or the randomness of the specific topic. Also the fact that my work always sounds better when revised and looked at multiple times. I feel like with George, he takes Lamott’s style a bit serious and take offense to his statement. Unlike Lamott, George takes offense to the thought of any first pieces of his as shitty. I’m assuming due to the fact that your diminishing your creative and writing value before you even start the written assignment/subject. You set the bar for your first piece low since you already assume that it’ll be crap, resulting to crappy work. The fact that you feel your first piece of work isn’t good enough also prevents the motivation a writer needs in order to perfect his craft. So, I feel I can relate my writing style in the middle with both Lamott’s and Dila’s aspects and view points on their first drafts. I expect my first pieces of writing to be lacking the requirments for the assignment/subject but I don’t expect myself to be writing something that I feel would belittle how I write. I shouldn’t expect every first piece of my writing to be straight garbage, and/or being the best piece of writing when it’s a first draft.