Rakiem’s Writers Journal

December 4, 2021

Revision 1

1. What I did:

• Read Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision
• Read An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing
• Completed Revisions on Analysis Paper

2. What went well

• I was able to finish the revisions without rushing
• I was able to finish all the readings without being short for time

3. What was hard:

• Making time available for me to do my revisions

4. To-Do List:

• Look for a project in where I think a revision needs to be made

5. Where I left off:

• I left off with a finished revised paper for my analysis

6. How do I feel?

I feel pretty stressed out once again. This is another weekend where I am finishing work on deadline, and I want to end off with not missing any assignments in this course. Next week, I will try to be on top of everything, due to it being my last week in this course.

7. Use your analysis skills to make a plan for revision.

The project I will be revising is the Analysis Paper. I wrote this paper in order to look for how effective the author was in delivering his message, in which the text is titled Good Writers Always Follow My Rules. I go in depth about the aspects of rhetoric, in which I look at author, audience, purpose, occasion, and topic in order to come to a claim in which I see if the article is effective in displaying its message or not. As the writer, I want to be as descriptive as possible to my audience due to me trying to prove that the way the message is expressed is effective. Also, I want to make the writing as clear as possible, so my readers don’t get confused or come to the wrong conclusion. The things that feel effective about the analysis is the way I break down the article that I am reviewing for effectiveness. This type of description is crucial in making the reader of my piece think that the Good Writers Always Follow My Rules text is effective in its writing. Now, going on to the feedback of the paper, it mainly was down to specificity and grammatical errors. I had accidental fragments that the professor pointed out to me, which was helpful in making my writing clearer. Also, my formatting of the paper needed a little switching up due to it needing to be in MLA format. This included just changing the title and changing the work cited page. Revision like theses take an hour or two to make, in which I did for this week.

November 29, 2021

Autoethnography

1. What I did:

• Read Some People Are Just Born Good Writers
• Read Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?
• Wrote a Autoethnography Rough Draft
• Re-read the goals of this class

2. What went well:

• I was able to get back on track with work
• I was able to write my draft and not have to rush
• I was able to get all of the readings done

3. What was hard:

• Time was another thing that didn’t really come to me
• Had to make tight schedules in order to not fall behind again

4. To-Do List:

• Choose an assignment to revise on
• Make sure to finish work on time for next week

5. Where I left off:

• Left off with a finished Autoethnography
• Finished reading all the texts needed for this week

6. How do I feel?

I feel pretty stressed for the past few weeks, including the weeks where I did research. I think this is because finals are coming up and I have to narrow on what I have to study in order for me to pass my classes.

7. In the Autoethnography project you’ll be asked to do the kind of reflective writing Giles Review the learning goals for this course and consider how you feel about them and your progress as a writer so far. Choose one or two learning goals as a jumping off point or frame for a brief reflection on your writing in this course. Do you think you’re meeting these learning goals? How do you know? What evidence do you have from your writing that you’ve worked on these goals?

I believe that I am meeting the writing goal of reading and analyzing texts critically is one of the goals that I am meeting. This is because I have learned a lot in this class about the rhetoric conventions of author, purpose, occasion, audience, and topic. I now understand what a text needs in order to display a message effectively. Looking at the analysis project we completed after our literary narrative, I put my skills to the test. I look at a text from the Bad Ideas of Writing, in which I go in depth for every aspect of rhetoric. This makes me come to the claim of whether the text is effective in delivering its message or not. Also, since being able to read and analyze the texts critically, I was also able to write my own texts critically. Looking at my Research paper from this class, I had a purpose of persuading the Board of Education to make literature classes more first person and narrative writing orientated in order to benefit the students in the long run. In order to write these texts, I needed an understanding of rhetoric which I had and made sure to implement in my writing. All of these conventions were hit in the writing, making the text effective in delivering the message I wanted, which was using first person and narrative more writing in schools. Looking at this more broadly, these two goals are basically a timeline in which I learn something new every project and hit a goal that I made at the starting of this course.

November 21, 2021

Research

1. What I did:

• Read BIAW Citing Sources is a Basic Skill Learned Early On
• Revised my Research Paper

2. What went well:

• I was able to complete all of my revisions that were needed
• I was able to read the text given this week

3. What was hard:

• Didn’t have much time
• Very stressed out during the week

4. To-Do List:

• Get ready for new project for next week

5. Where I left off:

• Revised Research Paper
• All of my readings done

6. How do I feel?

• I feel exhausted due to the amount of work I had to squeeze into this one week. I still was able to get my work done. Hopefully in the next project I am able to stay on top of my work.

7. Reflect on the process of writing and composing your Research project. Answer any or all of the questions below that feel relevant to your practice:

When first reading the assignment, there was obviously a comprehension issue due to me writing for a question that didn’t even correlate to writing. However, writing the second paper with the correct question, my expectations coming in was I was going to definitely have a complete paper due my argument having a lot of studies looking towards it, making it easier for me to find evidence. The only thing I was concerned about was the time I would finish said paper due to me having to start from scratch. My expectations were met due to me being able to finish the paper in a timely fashion, having time to get back on track in the class. My concern of time was justified because going into a new week, I had no research paper to revise, but I had to make one, which made me worried about falling behind, leading me to miss assignments. I didn’t want that so I pushed myself in order to put out a 1700+ word paper before the week ended, which I did. My writing has grown over this Research Project due to me not following a certain structure and coming out of my comfort zone and trying a new format in which I could show my argument, while also explaining how the sources I used fit in which the academic conversation. This combination of new skills is improving me into a better writer, but I still have a lot to learn. With the feedback I’m getting now, I will be able to do better on future Research projects due to me knowing the common mistakes made and what I should do in order to fix them. Learning is a process, which I am willing to take in the future projects as well, just to better myself as a writer.

 

November 21, 2021

Research

1. What I did:

• Read the Developing Paragraphs: MEAL Plan Method
• Read the Developing Connections: Signals of Synthesis
• Completed the Quarterly Check In

2. What went well:

• Was able to make some revision in the week
• Was able to have a finished research paper with a surplus of sources

3. What was hard:

• Having to start from scratch on the research assignment
• Finding sources in order to supplement my assignment

4. To-Do List:

• Use the meal method when revising new rough draft of the research paper
• Set up times in order to get back with the class and get back to finishing assignments on time

5. Where I left off:

• Finished Research Paper

6. How do I feel?

• I feel stressed but also relived. I was able to bounce back on track and finish the assignment. Time hasn’t been much in my favor for the weeks in the past, however, I will need to fix my schedule in order to fit the time I have. This class is very intriguing, so doing the work is not much of an issue, I feel it is up to me to finish the work on time or late, as long as its not missing.

7. Reflect on the questions in your post and include your responses as well as at least one paragraph where you highlighted the M–E–A–L.

Looking at the start of my paper. I include a thesis that does have evidence to back it up, which is good making me move on in my paper. While looking at my meal distribution for my body paragraphs, I saw that I didn’t have the M which is the claim. I was mostly doing a lot of summaries of the text, and not really starting off with why I would be using these sources. And this is not just for one paragraph, but actually, all of the paragraphs which is kind of a problem because my paper is suppose to show persuasion which is not shown when there are summaries just in my paper, with no claim in order to show why they are there. Looking at my paper, I didn’t see much unbalance between my sources. This is because for each source, I did a credibility check, and explained the results of every source. Then I looked at where they would be placed in the academic conversation, in which after I gave my 2 cents of why it would show that narrative and first person writing should be included in all grade levels. This wasn’t changed for the most part in my body graphs, showing that all of these paragraphs would probably have EAL. However, they are missing the M part of Meal, in which I will need to include claims in order to show my argument. This will strengthen my paper even further, in which will make it even more persuasive than it already is.

 

November 13, 2021

Research

1. What I did:

• Read Synthesizing Your Research Findings
• Read Annoying Ways People Use Sources
• Wrote a Research Rough Draft

2. What went well:

• I was able to get a draft out to be graded
• I was able to read both texts in time

3. What was hard:

• Time management, didn’t have time to finish Week 11 journal entry
• Very stressed out due to the Research Draft

4. To-Do List:

• Take time to do assignments that I need to do, while managing my time wisely

5. Where I left off:

• Left off with a rough draft of my research paper

6. How do I feel?

• I feel stressed out due to midterms, on top of juggling this research draft.

7. When is a time you had to synthesize information beyond a school project like to make a large purchase (ex: your first car or computer), decide between options (ex: selecting what college or university to attend), or educate yourself on a topic (ex: to learn a new skill, understand a medical condition), etc.

A time where I had to synthesize is choosing what school I went to for college. This was a tough decision, in which I had a lot of deciding factors, such as travel time, which school was better for what I wanted to pursue a career in (which is Economics), and what the school offered socially. The questions I asked before was how well would I fit in which each school, and would I be able to make the shift easier or harder in these colleges. When looking into Baruch, which was obviously my choice, I looked at the specialty of the school, which it was primarily a dominant business and economy school, which would then go to this idea that people who want to pursue economy and business career paths should come to this school. Also, the college was an hour away from me, which connects to me using the train twice, ultimately making me save money. Brooklyn didn’t excel much in any of the the information I described about Baruch except transportation, in which it was about the same for both colleges. Brooklyn wasn’t really known for their economic program, while also theirs other reasons which were that I wanted to go to school in Manhattan because I mainly stayed in Brooklyn and wanted to go to a different borough for school. This led me to my decision of Baruch College because they was so much good things inside and outside of the school, which could make me successful in the future.

November 1, 2021

Research

1. What I did:

• Read Guide to Using One Search
• Installed Zotero
• Read Source Evaluation
• Read Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources

2. What went well:

• Able to find good sources for my question quickly
• Able to change my question in order for it to be easier in my eyes to find information for for credibility
• Able to use new programs that helped me cite the sources I was looking at

3. What was hard:

• Time was hard, didn’t have a lot of it this week
• Having a focused place to work and find sources was difficult to find

4. To-Do List:

• Do a source evaluation for the sources I have right now

5. Where I left off:

• 5 Sources for my Research Proposal
• Read all the articles given to me

6. How do I feel?

• I feel a little stressed, this is probably my first time turning in late work. However, I was able to get my work done and not feel like I fell behind. I will try for this week to finish my work on time so I don’t feel rushed.

7. 

Part 1

• Shyness, Shyness in College, New Environment, How Students are Socially in College,  New college Students, New College Student Shyness, College and Social, College and Mood, Shyness and Mood, Shyness and Mood Young Adults

Part 2

• The Source I will be evaluating is titled Depressive mood in Chinese early adolescents: Relations with shyness, self-esteem and perceived social support by Siu Mui Chan. Siu Mui Chan seems pretty experienced on the topic at hand where she looks into adolescents’ minds, having multiple articles in which correspond with the child and their emotional well being. She looks at schools in Hong-Kong because she lives there, and that is pretty much what is known about her. The audience that will mostly look at this article will be people who probably reside in Hong-Kong but also from other countries due to them wanting to know about Hong-Kong and their children’s mental health probably for something anthropology related. Due to this being more of a research and findings article, it will most likely be expressed to the audience clearly. This leads to the purpose of this article which is to inform the uninformed about depression in adolescents and its relationship to shyness, self-esteem, and perceived social support. The study was made in 2012 in Hong-Kong. This time period was a time of innovation as we see technology being used more and more worldwide, and it becoming affordable for the working class. This text is mostly about the correlation between depression, shyness, self-esteem and perceived social support, in which depression had a positive correlation with shyness, and a negative correlation with self-esteem and perceived social support.

 

October 22, 2021

Research

1. What I did:

• Read BIAW Research Starts with Answers
• Read BIAW Research Starts with a Thesis Statement
• Read Invention
• Read Taking Flight: Connecting Inner and Outer Realities during Invention

2. What went well:

• Able to finish all readings on time
• Felt relived due to no need to rush for time to complete assignments
• Able to learn about invention and its connection to writing

3. What was hard:

• Nothing was hard for the most part this week, time has always been a struggle but not this week

4. To-Do List:

• Look over week 10 assignments
• Make a schedule of when to do readings and when to do research project

5. Where I left off:

• Left off with finished readings
• Left off with a knowledge of intervention and its correlation to writing

6. How do I feel?

I feel relived that I got time to finish my assignment on a Friday. I didn’t feel rushed for time for the most part, and I was able to get what I needed for this week which may or may not go into me doing my research project in the future. Not much problems occurred this week, so that is also a plus.

7. Try at least one of the Invention Strategies here for the Research project.

When doing research in the past, the strategies that worked for me were asking critical questions about the topic, brainstorming ideas from the specific topic, the use of mapping, and looking at the rhetorical situation of the topic I’m writing about. However, these strategies all worked in different situations. But for this situation, I decided to use brainstorming as a way of getting my research question. This is because you have all your ideas on the table in order for you to look over them. With this, I was able to connect different ideas together and see which were the most interesting for me to study. In my thought process, looking at the different invention strategies placed in front of me made it a little difficult for me to find questions to write about. The Writing Starts with Answers text showed me a different side to research, which I was never shown. I was always told to follow the structure of research assigned by my teacher but never knew it hindered my writing. Now looking from a different lens, I want a free mind of thinking, in which brainstorming in a list allows me to do. I didn’t think to much on the idea of just finding research online, but I wanted to take more of an interview heavy, primary source approach in order for my data to be more credible. With this, I was able to figure out my question by grouping a new environment and social skills together. My question is, “How does a new environment affect how people act towards other people?”.

October 16, 2021

Analysis

1. What I did:

• Read Official American English Is Best
• Read Grading Has Always Made Writing Better
• Read Plagiarism Detection Services are Money Well Spent
• Read Face-to-Face Courses are Superior to Online Courses 
• Finished the Quarterly Check In
• Finished Revising the Analysis Paper

2. What went well:

• I was able to finish my readings in time without rushing
• I was able to expand my knowledge on why being bilingual is not a bad thing
• I was able to see that grading provides not much improvement to writing, due to teachers mostly following a certain rubric which is going back to the structured writing.

3. What was hard:

• Time was pretty short for completing my English assignments
• I was stressed out with the workload all week

4. To-Do List:

• Look at Week 9s Assignment

5. Where I left off:

• Finished Analysis Paper
• Finished 4 Chapters from Bad Ideas Of Writing

6. How do I feel?

I felt stressed out over the week due to the lack of time I had to finish both my reading and revising my paper. Even though I was able to do the reading, I had to quickly finish revising my paper in order to reach the deadline. I knew what I needed to fix, however it could have taken longer. I’ll look into the next week giving more time to English.

7. In your response, please describe the problem or issue you see at the heart of the chapter you’ve chosen. Do some informal research (Google is great here) and see what conversations are happening around this issue.

The problem I see is that failure is still looked upon as being bad when writing. This leads writers to shy away from making mistakes and being scared to write what they feel is necessary. Two sides of the failure argument is the one side that believes that failure always means something negative which can be represented as the  past generations believing that failure just shows stupidity or weakness of mind. The other side is that failure just leads to you mastering writing, in which this side believes that writing gets better overtime, going towards the 10,000 hour rule. Both sides are filled with writers that have different norms. According to Allison D. Carr, people who believe failure is negative are people who have their writing hindered due to them following a structure of “perfection” and not being able to make mistakes. However Carr believes people open to mistakes will be better off mastering writing them than people who don’t. From my point of view, I believe that failure is an option and that people are open to failure because it makes them a better writer so they don’t fall into numerous mistakes. When avoiding these mistakes it makes their writing better which I want for myself. This issue is still seen in today’s society, people finding it hard to fail in writing so they don’t get a bad grade on an assignment or a pep talk from an employer. I still wonder when all people will find it easier to fail to learn from mistakes.

October 9, 2021

Analysis

1. What I did:

• Read the Introduction in Bad Ideas About Writing
• Listened to the introduction podcast for the corresponding book
• Read Failure is Not an Option in Bad Ideas About Writing

2. What went well:

• Was able to see what the purpose of making the book was
• Reading the chapter allowed me to see how different authors responded to different bad ideas about writing
• Was able to figure out the rhetorical situation of the book, in which would show why it is effective in its display of the message

3. What was hard:

• Having time to finish the assignment was hard due to me being busy

4. To-Do List:

• Finish revising Analysis from last week
• Look at the assignments for week 8

5. Where I left off:

• Rough Draft of the Analysis Assignment
• Done with the readings for this week

6. How do I feel?

I feel tired because I have had a lot of work from multiple different classes. However, I was still able to get the work done for this class before 11:59 PM, which is good. Hopefully the next week is a little less hectic.

7. After reading the Introduction and one additional chapter from Bad Ideas About Writing, chart or record the rhetorical situation this book is responding to. Consider using a visual representation or listing the elements in your response.

From the introduction and FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION in Bad Ideas of Writing, I was able to get what the rhetorical situation is, starting from society and history. Explained in the chapter, and in many other chapters, the bad idea is said to have originated way back when writing became significant. For instance, in the FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION text, it is shown that failure in writing goes back to the industrialization period, in which writing was needed more. It created ranks in a way, in which distinguished the illiterate from the literate, in which the illiterate was looked down upon in society, which is why this notion of failing in writing is bad. Going on to audience, it is generally just writers. It may be people who are accustomed to the old norms or people who have went away from the old norms in order to improve their writing. All in all, the message is the same for both groups. The speaker, Allison D. Carr, is an assistant professor who specializes in rhetoric and writing, which is very credible because her job description fits right into what she is writing about. Just like Carr, there are numerous authors placed in different parts of the book, all with their accolades and job descriptions that fit in with the writing. Now, onto the purpose, these authors are trying to convey or maybe even persuade to readers that they should move away from the old norms of writing in order to improve their creativity and better their writing. The message also being shown is that writing is improving as people move to being different from the norms they were given to follow. And finally, this is during a time where writing is most significant both electronically and just on paper, in which we may still see people following the same old norms, in which is hindering their writing progress.

October 2, 2021

Analysis

1. What I did:

• Finished Analysis Rough Draft
• Read Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis
• Read Bad Ideas of Writing

2. What went well:

• Finished rough draft with a lot of time to spare
• Read the texts and learned about more rhetoric
• Was able to answer all the guiding questions when re-reading my text

3. What was hard:

• Nothing was hard this week, I got most of my work done on time

4. To-Do List:

• Revise my rough draft for errors I may have made when Dr. Salisbury looks over my work.

5. Where I left off:

• I left off with a finished rough draft of my Analysis of the chapter in Bad Ideas of Writing

6. How do I feel?

This week I feel pretty relieved that I was able to make it through. Although I had a lot of work for other classes, I still was able to finish the work in this class unrushed and fairly well.

7. How do you use rhetoric in your daily life? What messages do you try to communicate? To what audiences?

I used rhetoric in my life to persuade my mother into buying me something. When persuading in order to get an item, you have to explain the reason on why you should get it first off. It has to be helpful, but an argument could be made for something electronic wise like a phone or a gaming system. Then comes the occasion, in which there cant be any issues residing prior to asking. Meaning, I shouldn’t be in any trouble before I ask for the item in question. Being in trouble would hinder my message getting across to my mother because you wouldn’t receive rewards for doing the wrong thing, and being in trouble just makes the message entirely ineffective. Going on to background, this is similar to the occasion in this situation in which I am a person of good grades and good behavior asking for my mother to buy me something. My mom will see me as more “giftable” when I’m doing more good than bad. The topic really is just why I should get the item. Its pretty self explanatory throughout me speaking to my mother. And finally the audience. The audience would be my mother so when speaking I wouldn’t speak to her as if she was my friend, but speak to her as a parent. Obviously seeing this as audience shifts, as I explained previously, the way you express your speech or message differentiates. All of these things apart of rhetoric are very important, and when shifted, it shifts the speech in order for the message to be effective. And in the end, when portraying that I should get either a iPhone or a PS5, I will be more likely to get these items based on the rhetoric I used.