Third Blog

I found my self struggling at the time of writing my example essay in class with only an hour and twenty minutes on the clock! Even with an outline, I can't just sit there and write. I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to writing that I can't just write a sentence that doesn't flow right and just say "ohh I'll come back to this" and be fine with it. It takes a while to think about it. Writing almost never frustrated me before this!

Third blog

I have noticed over a few days that we have been learning about comparisons and I think that it is really interesting because of all the television commucialsand even the shows it compares them to different objects or other shows. So thats what I think was really interesting in our class this last week.

Blog 3

While sitting in class the other day not realizing that i was supposed to write an essay in class I sort of panicked. I knew what i was going to write about but what I didn't know was that I was going to write it in class and that it was due by the end of class. After missing that tuesday class I missed out on the core of what needed to be done. So as I sat there i did a little research of what i needed to do, and to my amazement i completed the essay just in time. A sigh of relief, and the inevitable fact that i shouldn't miss out on class!

Experiences with group work.

Just the other day we were working in groups for a writing class and the people that were in my group were very helpful and understanding to me because I was not sure how to do the project and they helped me through it. They did not judge me about that I could not do it,but they helped me through it so I understanded it better. I think that is the way group work should always go.

Hobbies Well Missed

I've been thinking a lot lately of how flat this town truly is. I've have been surrounded by lakes and hills my entire life and then I moved to Fargo, the land of flatness. I never realized how much hills and lakes really do mean to me until I spent my first winter here. Snowboarding has been a hobby of mine for a few years now and I can't do that here like I can back home. I can't go ice fishing or play hockey either which makes these dreadful winters seem to last forever! I guess that was just something that has been in the back of my mind for a while now and I figured it was something that I could share with everyone else.

PDA

Today I was sitting in the commons trying to think of something to write about and nothing was coming to mind and then it finally came to me. PDA why do people have to do some of the things they do in front of a lot of people why cant they just wait until they are by themselves where no one sees them. I mean you should have some self respect and some respect for other people. I am not against a peck or anything like that it is mainly the full on getting after it. It is way out of line and you don't wanna look but at the same time you just cant turn away. So I would appreciate if there would be a little less PDA.

Group Work

In todays class we did group work with research. How I can I apply that to other classes? Is in my labs or when we do group work in class I have to make sure to get everyones input as well as mine out for the assignment. The research part of todays assignment I can use in any of my science classes when reports on an element or body part or disease that needs to be defined a little more. The writing portion of todays assingment I can use with the research portion.

Blog Three - Example Essay

When I took Wrting Fundamentals last semester and we had to do this essay I was nervous because I had never done it before. Doing the essay again on Tuesday made me feel more confident and I felt like I wrote my paper better. I thought it was kind of fun doing this essay, and I also liked that we could use our outline to help prepare us.

Blog 3

In class tuesday we had to write an exemplification essay and I thought I was going to struggle. Although when it came to writing the paper, it was rather easy. I thought it was easy because by having a detailed outline, it made it easier to write the paper and my examples and paragraphs were more constructive than they would have been if I didn't use an outline. I thought it was a little difficult not being able to see the other paper that we had wrote to elaborate on and make sure that this paper didn't have the same mistakes, but all in all I thought that the exemplification essay went very well!!

Blog 3

So the example essay we were writing in class on Tuesday, was alittle intimidating to me at first. I wasn't sure if it was going to come out ok, or even get a decent grade. I was very worried about just ramblin' on. But once I got started on the paper, and thought it through, and when I believed I was finished went back and reread. I was able to move paragraphs and sentences around and make it flow alittle better. The more of these essays that we write, I think the easier they will get...Hopefully. So far I have really enjoyed the class. And hope to learn much more before the end of the semester.

Blog 3

I found it very helpful to have an outline ready in class the other day. Usually, when teachers want me to prepare an outline I just think it is a waste of time and not very helpful. But when there is a time limit on how long I have to write a paper the outline was very helpful. I was very surprised at how fast I was able to write three pages without even having to stop and think very often. I usually don't worry about getting papers done very fast because we have about a week to get them done on our own time. I now know that if I am in a hurry to get a paper done I will make sure to have an outline prepared beforehand.

Blog 3

I just got done reading our bryson assignments. i really enjoy reading his book, im always catching myself with a big smile on my face, laughing or nodding my head. it is obvious that he has experienced alot of stuff and like to talk and share it in his book. im sure alot of people can relate their own lives to his and the experiences that he has had.

Example Essay

I really enjoyed doing the example essays! i thought it was alot of fun bc we got to write about something that we enjoyed or caught our eye. also it was a good idea to make an outline for the fact of being perpared to write the paper in class.

Blog 3

Yesterday during class I was happy that I had written an outline before hand so that I was more prepared to write my example essay. The essay I wrote was examples of how customer service workers are treated badly by customers sometimes. Since we were on a time limit using the outline made it so that I knew where I was going with the essay and so that I didn't get lost and waste precious time. Doing this assignment made me realize how important and helpful outlines can be. I also use outlines in my speech class and it is very helpful in that class too.
I have noticed that throughout the chapters that we are assigned to read the author always talks about how we need to think about whom the audience is that is going to read our papers. This is the same thing that we have to do in my speech class. Thinking about the audience makes it so that you know how much detail that you need in a paper or if you can leave something out. I learned in speech that it’s good to do audience analysis so that you know if you need more examples to clarify things for the reader.

Reflecting on last semester to now

Last semester when I took Writing Fundamentals, I felt like I didn't know anything. Throughout the semester though, I starting catching on more and more and was wondering why I had never learned this much in High school. Taking this class now is like a review of last semester. I feel like I know alot more and am confident in writing an essay.

Reflection

I've realized throughout this class that my own ideas and things that we talk about seem to be popping up in my head more and more. I have always been shy and have been really afraid to speak out in front of the class and share MY ideas to everyone else. I took a reading comprehension class, which helped me analyze certain subjects, compare/contrast them, and basically break all of them down to understand it better. Taking THAT, and coming into this class has made me more confident now that we do things such as getting together into groups to talk it over with just two or three people. Other classmates have given me ideas and have had great points. I really appreciated the fact that we had a few opinions on our first paper's rough draft... it helped a lot! I transfered here from NDSU, and love it 10 times better. I feel like I get 10 times more help! =)

reflection

I was thinking about how classes overlap today and came up with a few things. Although we aren't very far along in classes I can already see the similarities in them. I have a public speaking class and I noticed the other day how some of the same termonology is used. Our instructer was talking about delivery and to consider the audience that you have in mind. I had remembered that in our writing class you had said the same thing. If you don't have a certain target audience in mind then you could be preaching to the wrong choir.

Last semester I had noticed the same thing. I was in a philosophy, art, and psychology class. In all of the classes, at some point in time they were talking about the same kinds of things. When I was in art our instucter talked about what your artwork says about your psyche. In philosophy we talked about how psychology tells us what is right, but at the same time things could be much more complex than people think.

School

It's weird how classes can be overlapping. What I mean is that some of the things discussed in one class are heard being discussed in another class. And example is focusing your writing on a certain audience. I heard that same stuff in my Public Speaking class. Same thing with learning how to cite pages when doing research. I heard it last semester in Psych, heard it this semester in both Writing and Public Speaking. Who knew College Writing and Public Speaking could have so much in common!?

Reflection of Class

When starting this semester I came into College Writing empty handed. Writing has never been my strong point so it has proved to be a challenge. I had no idea that there were so many types of writing out there, from process to exemplification. I enjoy writing but it is stressful at times to come up with a good topic to write about and have enough information. The easiest way to come up with a topic is to not think about it so much, and a thought comes to you in your everyday life. I really look forward to learning about better writing techniques and the different types of essays that actually exist.
I also really enjoy reading the Bryson essays, they have the great qualities of writing and I love the humor the puts into his writings. He takes things that we take for granted in our every day lives and writes about them and it really makes you think about things a little more.

Reflection of Class

In our new class I have learned so many new things regarding writing. It is amazing how little I now realize that I knew when it actually came to writing a paper. Our process essay, well I personally found it very difficult to come up with an idea I did not view as being to difficult to write or that wouldn't turn into a 15-20 page paper. I can be quite wordy when i want to be. I have begun to write papers for my other classes and the little work book that was required has actually come in handy.
I have also come to enjoy reading the Bryson essays. They are quite interesting. He seems to know how to entertain the reader and keep thier interests. I hope to gain more from this class in regard to becoming a good writer.

Take a little trip...

Greta created her own blog, so her first few posts are at http://collegewriting1spring2008.blogspot.com/. She's now joining the class blog, but I wanted her other writings to get credit as well. Check it out :)

Reflection

Todays class was about how to write a comparison-contrast paper which was a review for me. Were I have used comparison-contrast is mostly in my psychology classes during an essay formated test or paper. Were I had to explaine two diffrent theorist experiment that proved to do the samething and then explaine the diffrences, similarity, and which one I thought was most logical and could be used. I have always done well with those things because the subject was put in front of me now I am just a little worried that I wont come up with a decent topic to write about.

Reflections

Reflecting back on the first month or so of being in this class I realize that I have already started to learn a lot of new concepts on how to write better. One of the most important things is how to properly write a thesis; which I was not taught in my Writing Fundamentals class last semester. The other day I was looking at my papers that I wrote last semester and I was surprised to find that all of the thesis sentences I wrote began with “ in my opinion” and things to that nature. I think that using different wording makes thesis's better. Another thing that I have in cooperated into my writing is transition phrases, which helps to make the paper not so choppy. I work with transitions in my speech class also so all the things that I learn in class actually help me there too.
Another thing I have learned this semester is that I need to work on my C.S, R.O, and fragment sentences. After Crystal Jensen came in and talked to our class and told us about her tutoring in the learning center. I went and saw her and had her look over my comparison essay and she taught me a trick about commas and that was the FANBOYS trick. We went through my paper and looked at all the errors in it and she explained to me why there was a problem if there was one. After I fixed my paper it was a lot better and I know for sure that I’m going to take time out and go and see her when I need help with my writing. I think that it is great that she tutors for English because it helps a lot.

Wolves in Yellowstone

In environmental science issues class we are currently learning about the time the scientists and conservationists wanted to bring back the wolves to Yellowstone National Park. They found out that the absence of the wolves were causing a poor balance in the ecosystem, for example there were too many elk, deer, and bison. But what I learned is that the people who live in the areas of Yellowstone highly opposed the scientists bringing back the wolves, because they think that wolves are ferocious creatures that kill everything in sight. Society has portrayed wolves as being a terrible species that kill humans and are evil spirited animals. I learned that wolves are actually graceful creatures that are scared of humans presence. The scientists had a very difficult time in bringing back the wolves to Yellowstone, but with determination and perseverance they finally successfully brought back the wolves to the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park.

Reflecting on the First Paper

From the first day of a new cemester is always the most exciting because of what you will learn and what you are paying to get taught. My first day I had English 1101 I was pretty nervous because through my school years I havent been to good at grammer and writing papers, but as the class continued Ifelt like I was learning more about writing a paper. As the week went on I was hoping that i would do a good job at doing the paper. I should of spent a little more time with the paper but I feel that I will do good with it because i went through an outline stage and I believe I put everything into the paper. So I thought I should write about the previous paper because it's how I felt doing the paper.

Workshop

I thought that the workshop we did was a little bit hard. It was because we had a small amount of time to read and critique three to four papers. What took up the most time was people were, I think, confused with the assignment, and the papers needed alot of help and corrections. I dont feal like my critique on my paper was helpful. I dont feal I got a lot of constuctive critism and the critism I did get, didnt have a purpose I felt. Hopefully next workshop it will run smoother and the papers will be critiqued harder.

A Reflection on a Short Amount of Time

I feel like this class is really paying off for me. Even though we have only written one paper, I feel like I did a much better job than I have in the past. Writing has always come easy to me, but this class is challenging me to go beyond that and push myself harder. At times, I don't like the thought of this, but after reading my final paper, I was quite pleased. I recently had to write a paper for one of my other classes and even though we haven't done to much actual writing, I feel like my paper was a lot better from being in this class than it could have been if I wasn't. The group work didn't really effect me to much because I didn't have to many comments, but then again, that could be a good thing. I guess we'll find out when I get my paper back!

People trying to Drive in Snowstorms

Last night on interstate going into North Dakota, way home from a friends house I could see all these lights. As I got closer I could see a crumpled up car which use to be a size of a box and now it is the size of salt cube. It had spun out and came infront of a semi-truck. The person was air-lifted to the hospital. I was wondering to my self why do people drive so crazy once the snow hits the ground. You see all of there pick-ups and suv's driving like they own the road and dirving fifty mile per hour when its twenty-five. Also talking on the cell phone while the raods are this bad, come on use common sense you not only putting you life indanger, but everybody else around you. People need to learn how to dive smart and retake driversed or there should be cameras in your car to observe you driving. I just don't want to die at the cost of someones studpity. A persons life is worth a lot more than the one you are talking to on the cell phone tell them to hang up and drive and call you when they are back at their desanation.

What happened to the younger Generation

Like Nicole said about the Valentines how her kids didn't take the time to look at all the cards. I remember back when I was in around third grade where we would make these really big boxes of things like computers, the heart box, and all the other neat things. Even with like Halloween we used to put on our costume's and we would walk around the school after lunch in our lines and walk through the older kids classrooms. That was the best thing ever, when i graduated last year they didn't even walk through the school. And the High schoolers watch out for them they are way to cool to dress up for Halloween. I just don't understand what happened to our younger generation.

Valentines Day

Last night I was sitting with my boys on the floor helping them with thier valentines for school. It was fun to see my first grader writing all the names on the different cards and watching trying to spell everyones name right. He was excited to give one to all of his teachers also. My preschooler was making his also, I would write his name on them and he would fold them. I realized that when I was younger that the valentines came with little envelopes and they don't anymore or at least of what I can tell. I was thinking about how much fun I had when I would do them for my class and how I would sit and read all of them and give the speacial cards to that boy I liked. Also I would give my best friends they best card and the people that I didnt like so much I would make sure i wouldnt give them the ones that said "Be Mine' or they might think I like them. My first grader didnt even do that he just signed them, folded them, and gave them a sucker and that was it. So maby its just a girl thing to pick out certain cards to give to that certain someone. Anyway it will be a great and fun day for my son's they get to have a party and eat candy all day!!

Class

I thought the group work we did helped out a little bit. I personally like to work more by myself but some of the advice I received did help. One thing I found difficult about the group work was that I didn't know much about the topics others wrote about, so it was hard to know if the info was in correct order and stuff. I also felt pretty rushed when we were correcting, like we could've used a bit more time.

Blog Two

This week has been uneventful. Monday was a day for relaxing because of President's Day. With this day off from college; I decided to do some, well deserved, sleep. On Tuesday I had to prepare for English 1101. The assignment that was given out for this day, was to write a two to three page essay. I couldn't meet that requirement because of my small hand writing, but I though what I had written down was good enough.

Wednesday was just one of those days were you think things will go right, but they dont. It started off in my Math 1020 course which are instructor gave us two assignments due for Monday. They're both reading assignments that we got to read and work on the questions that are given. Thursday was really nothing special except for the group assignment. Each group needed to find four college internet sites and needed to go over the three Bryson essays to do some comparisons.

Firday has been eventful for the most part. I got into a near miss collision thanks to the icy roads. It freaked me out becuase of how much space was between me and the other vehicle. There was no space between us it was a hair or two at the most. I could turn this into a essay topic about icy roads and about their effects to the world around them, but I'm glad that I didn't crash because I just got my car back.

Class Feedback

I found it very helpfull on my essay to here what other people thought of my essay, and give ideas on how to improve it.

Classes working together

I am currently taking college writing, pub speaking, com tech, and sociology. College writing doesnt really play into any of the other classses but pub speaking. They work almost hand in hand. Many of the chapters I have read in both classes talk about lots of the same things. One big one is narrowing topics and making them small enough to fit into a speech or into an essay, and making sure not to ramble on away from the topic or thesis. We make outlines in both classes the same way. Thesis statements along with introduction and closing paragraphs are used almost daily in both classes as well. Its almost like im speeking or presenting an essay in one class and writitng an essay in another.