Blog 21 (Writing Review)

I honestly don't really think of myself as a writer. I guess I would say as an intermediate writer. My writing mechanics leaves something to be desired and there is still a lot I need to learn to ever become advanced at writing. I can form sentences so I would say I am not a beginner.

I never considered the different types of writing there were. I knew the basic categories of essays like informative, persuasive etc... I never thought about the fact that these were not the only types. I didn't care as long as I wrote the essay right and got a good grade. I never really thought about what an essay is. In this class I had to think about what an essay is, how to meld form and content, and what an autobiography consists of. So I guess I am more aware of what I am writing.

I realized that I don't really plan out what I am going to write. I just sit down and write. After I am done writing then I edit and alter my writing. I think I learned to plan out what I am writing to a certain extent in order to organize my paper better. I don’t plan what I am writing paragraph for paragraph, but I make a skeleton of the paper.

Before this class I usually did not have my peer’s edit my paper. I just assumed have the teacher edit it. In this class, however, with every writing project we had to peer review our papers for points. This helped because it gave me more input than just the teacher’s thoughts on what I needed to fix. I like having my teacher look over any paper I am turning in to them because then they can give me their input on my paper and I know what they are expecting me to fix in order to do better.

I don’t know if I can give an exact definition of good writing, because the rules change from essay to essay. There isn’t a concrete set of guidelines. I would say that for me good writing adheres to writing mechanics rules, (depending upon the type of writing) it gives the authors opinion and insights along with the data of the subject. A good writer’s paper is organized and the thesis ties the whole paper together. The paper is not scattered or rambling there is a purpose to what is written.

I am still trying to figure out how to meld form and content in writing. In "Blog 6" we were supposed to meld form and content and I don’t think I did a good job of it. I think this is something that I definitely need to work on. I also need to work on my Rhetoric Appeals essays. I don’t always see the connections between a piece and all its rhetoric appeals. The main problem I have with rhetoric appeals is that I usually only saw one or two appeals instead of all three like I was supposed to. This is part of the reason that I only discussed on rhetoric appeal mainly in my "Rhetoric Appeals Paper". I am good at observing things. I kind of enjoyed the "Observation and Reflection essay", because I like just writing about what I think and how that deals with what I observed.

Blog 20 (Object Orientated Autobiography 3)

Wooden Rocking Horse

When I was little all of my friends could braid hair, but I could not, but I wanted to learn. My mom showed me how to braid once, but I needed to practice before I could claim that I could also braid hair. So I practiced on my wooden rocking horse’s tail.

The rocking horse was made out of oak with a wood finish by the Amish in Arthur, Illinois. It was not very detailed, meaning there were no eyes and mouth or hooves attached to the oak rocker. It was just horse shaped with a flat back for a seat. There were three rungs between the two rockers that the whole structure was attached to. At each end of the rungs there were oak screw hole buttons covering the screws. In the neck of the rocking horse there were two handles. One handle on each side of the neck, so that the rider could hold on while rocking. The horse’s mane and tail was made out of undyed wool yarn. The longer I had the horse the more the yarn started to take on a slight yellow hue from dirt and age. When the rocking horse was given to me both the mane and the tail were firmly attached to the horse. However after a while the mane remained firmly attached to the rocking horse’s neck, but the tail would come out of the rocking horse’s tailbone. I came to enjoy the fact that the horses tail would come off of it. I would attach the tail to clipboards and practice braiding while watching television or talking to my family. I also liked that it came off because then when I would dust the horse. The pledge and orange oil would not get in the yarn of the tail like it did in the yarn of the mane.