Hello and Welcome! This is my 6th blog post! For this blog we were asked to use the scene from Blog 5 and make it counterfactual. For this blog I asked myself “what if the weather was different?” and “What would’ve happened if it was a nice sunny day?”
My friends and I bought tickets to go see a concert at Penn's Landing. Before the concert I checked the weather. I noticed that on the day of the concert it was supposed to be a thunderstorm. I took a screenshot and sent it to a group chat with the friends I was going with. James quickly replies “whocares I am still going” Five more of them emphasize James’s message. I texted back “I guess if you guys are with it I’ll still be with it” It's the day of the concert and it was dark, cold, and rainy. It was 12 p.m. and the concert started at 7 p.m.. We all got dropped off at the trolley stop in the middle of town. Our plan was to take public transportation down. We all had big heavy rain coats on. Once we got to the city the storm was ten times worse than it was back home. I turned to my friend John and asked “Do you want to go home?” John looked at me with confusion and said “No way!” We arrived at the concert and it was a long line to get in. James says to us “I wish I went home this sucks!” The worst part about this day was that the concert was outside. When we were waiting in line the rain suddenly stopped and the clouds opened up. The sun was so bright when it was shining through the clouds. It was like a miracle that the storm flew by. John yelled across the people “Paul and James lets get closer!” The three of us started to push through the crowd. It took forever to get up to the front but we finally did. John said to James and I “I can’t believe you guys wanted to leave, we would have missed out on this awesome concert!” James quickly said “It was all Paul he’s the one who wanted to leave.” I explained to them “I honestly did not feel like standing here in the pouring rain all night.” James agrees with me “Yeah, this would’ve sucked if it was raining.” The concert seemed really fast to me. I guess time does fly when you're having fun. Towards the end of the night John asked “Do you guys want to take the train or uber?” James replied “I don’t really care I am fine with either.” I agreed “Yeah, I don’t care how we get home?” John explained “Let’s just call an uber I don’t feel like waiting for the train.” The three of us walked a block or two and John called an uber. It was a long but very fun day.
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Welcome! This is my 5th blog post for my English Composition 1 class. For this post we were asked to compose an emotional scene using dialogue. We were also asked to connect our story to Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway). In the short story, Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway writes about an unplanned crisis with a man and woman in a relationship using a lot of symbolism. This relates to a time when my friends and I went downtown for a concert and our plans quickly changed unexpectedly. It was a spring night, about 70 degrees, and my friends and I went to a concert at Penn's Landing. I remember looking at the weather before I left and saw that it was going to be a nice day with clear skies. It took forever to get down there using public transportation, and when we got there it got dark really fast and the wind started to pick up. It was not looking good. In about twenty minutes the rain started to come down. I turned to my friend John and said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m going home.” He said, “Same, I’m getting out of here.” The storm got worse and worse. People were running out of the outdoor venue and into their cars. John and I were alone and could not find anyone we came with. John said, “Paul, I think we should try to make our way back to the train station.” “Let’s go now before it gets worse,” I said in agreement. We started walking in the direction of the station when we came across a flooded street. I said, “How are we getting around this? There is no way I'm walking through it.” John told me to follow him and we started looking for another route. When we both thought it couldn't get worse, both of our phones died. “John, we have to just get back to the station and we will be good, just stick with me,” I told him. We kept walking in the storm and it was so dark you couldn’t see a thing. We ran into a man and John asked, “Excuse me, do you know where the train station is?” The man said, “Keep going straight three blocks then make a right.” Finally, we got back to the station. John said, “Paul, I am drenched.” We waited for 45 minutes before the train got there. I don’t know what it was but the station smelled even more horrible that night. “I'm never going to another concert again!” I said, I was so happy when I saw the bright train light coming down the tracks. Hello! Welcome to my 4th blog post! In this post we were asked to read three different articles (links provided below) about the writing process from authors Don Murray, Anne Lamott, and Mary Karr. Then we were asked to create a scene using three quotes from each article we read.
Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray) -- introduction is not required reading Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | pp. 28 -34 | Short Assignments & Shitty First Drafts (Anne Lamott) It was a warm day in Los Angeles, California. I arrived on a Monday for a business trip. This was my first time in L.A. and I was looking for a good place to get something to eat. I went to the front desk of the hotel I was staying at to ask. There was a gentleman in front of me in line and I noticed his shoelace was not tied. I tapped him on the shoulder and said “ Your shoelace is untied sir.” He turned around to thank me and I said “ Oh my god your Don Murray!” He laughed and thanked me. I asked if we could get a picture. Don said “Yes, actually would like to join Mary Karr, Anne Lamott and I for dinner?” I said “yes, of course”. I was always interested in writing so I thought I would go and ask some questions about how they became so successful. We met Mary and Anne at the restaurant and we all sat down and got talking. “I always had trouble starting off my writings, what do you guys do to start writing?” I asked. Don Murray said, “ Prewriting is everything that takes place before the first draft, prewriting usually takes about 85% of the writer's time.” Mary Karr quickly responds after Don and says, “In the beginning, when there are zero pages, you have to cheer yourself into cranking stuff out, even if it lands on the cutting room floor.” I was also very curious about how much time they take to draft their work. I asked, “How many rough drafts do you usually do?” Anne says, “The idea of a shitty first draft, all good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.” She also says, “ In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.” Mary chimes in as well and says, “In the early draft, the generative self shakes pom-poms at every pen stroke and cheers at every crossed t. In a month or so, this diligent and optimistic creature gins out, say, two hundred pages.” Don begins to talk about what helps him and says, “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say.” “The first draft is like a child's draft, where you let it all pour out then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one’s going to see it and that you can shape it later.” says Anne. “Do you guys have any advice for me when it comes to writing?” Mary says, “After a lifetime of hounding authors for advice, I’ve heard three truths from every mouth: Writing is painful, it’s “fun” for novices, the very young, and hacks; other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision; the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age. Which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.” Don then told me, “We have to be patient and wait, and wait, and wait. The suspense in the beginning of a writing course is agonizing for the teacher, but if we break first, if we do prewriting for our students they will not learn the largest part of the writing process.” I was very happy that I got to speak to these amazing authors. They gave me so much good advice and plenty of tips on how to improve my writing. Welcome to my 3rd blog post! For this post I read A Fable for the Living by Kevin Brockmeier. For this post we were asked “How does the theme of this reading connect to your letter?” In this story it shows how the wife never gives up when things got hard. I want to have a relationship like that with my author self. I hope that I will never give up on my author self and I hope I stay close with you.
Dear John, My author self is like a secret that wants to be revealed with the uncertainty of the receiver's reaction. To start this off right, I want to apologize to you for not truly getting to know you and what you are capable of doing. Over the years I did a lot of assignments that had me write and during these assignments, I feel I did not let my true author self come out and write. This past year I’ve been practicing using my author self to write. I discovered that I had an author self at the end of 2019. If I knew that there is a part of me that puts me in the writing mode, I would have put more effort into my work in previous years. My plan to change my relationship with you is to sit down before I write and put more thought into my work.I realized that I had made a mistake by not allowing you to be in my thoughts when I write. John, after the next several weeks, I want to get to know you and learn more about who you really are. I would like to work with you and I hope that together we can write an assignment that is portfolio ready. This will take time, but eventually we will be one. If I had known you existed when I first started writing, I feel like I would have been able to write smoother and I would have been more into my work. Now that I know you exist, I think it is easier for me to sit down and start typing without any distractions. You help me stay focused and I know we can write a perfect paper if we work together. Throughout the next semester, I am going to interact with my author self through focus, time, and determination. When I sit down and look at my screen, my mind goes everywhere and I find it hard to focus on my assignment. This is where time comes in; I need to take my time when I write and I need to give more time to get into my writer self mode. I’m determined to do better in my writing and will focus on my assignment. If I can use these in my daily life, I feel like my author self and I will be closer. Sincerely, Paul In this blog I will be explaining what a multimodal website is and how it works. This post will inform readers how to use different criteria to create a multimodal website. I will be referencing the following links:
How to Create a Weebly Website All Writing is Multimodal C.R.A.P Assessing Multimodal Student Work
In my English Composition 1 class we are making a multimodal website to create a portfolio using process and product. The writing process and product together make up a holistic assignment. Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton wrote an article called “ All writing is Multimodal.” In this article they describe multimodal by making meaning and communication using five modes. The five modes are Linguistic, Aural, Visual, Gestural, and Spatial. Ball and Charlton claim that “all writing is multimodal” because every piece of communication is composed of more than one mode. I disagree with them because I think writing itself does not contain more than one mode. As the author of this website, I feel the five modes can be ranked on a scale of 1-5 in the following order of importance: 5) Visual - I feel this is most important because a visual picture gives you the best understanding. Just like the old saying “I’ll believe when I see it” 4) Aural- I feel this is a number four because by just listening to the tone of people's voices, you can have a better understanding of what is being communicated. 4) Linguistic- I feel this is a number four because it is the main way that people communicate and you need a good understanding of words and languages. 3) Spatial- This is a number three because organized work can be a lot easier to understand. 2) Gestural- This is the least important on my list because I feel that gestures can sometimes be misunderstood. The C.R.A.P. acronym stands for: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. I will rank these on a scale of 1 to 5: 5) Alignment - This is the most important because it shows organization in your writing and it makes it easier for people to read. If a website is easier to read then it is easier to understand. 5)Contrast - I feel this is a number 5 because by making the important things more noticeable gives a better understanding of what you are trying to say. 4)Repetition - This is a number four because I think the important things should stick out to the human eye. 3) Proximity- This is a three on the scale because I think that information should relate to each other. The seven sample criteria Borton and Huot suggest writers use to assess a multimodal composition are: Purpose, Audience, Tone, Organized, Transitions, Synthesize, Detailed. I think they are similar to the criteria we would use to assess a traditional print essay because these criteria help to create an understanding of what needs to be said. Welcome to my first Blog for my English Composition class. Our first blog assignment was to answer questions from The Proust Questionnaire. These questions were written by Marcel Proust to show someone's real personality. I recommend checking out The Proust Questionnaire for yourself! __1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? The idea of perfect happiness can mean a lot of things but to me perfect happiness is a day without conflict. For me I find it hard to find perfect happiness there's always that time where I am perfectly happy. __2.__What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is going out on a fishing ship and the boat starts to sink. Being stranded out in the middle of the ocean would be my biggest fear. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I can be very lazy. Some days when I have homework or a project due I will push it back to the day before it’s due. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? I hate people who are selfish. I dislike when people only care about themselves. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? My dad. My dad has always been there for me and I’ve always looked up to him. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? I spend a lot of money on food when I get my paycheck I usually go out and spend money like it’s all the money in the world. I will usually spend it on food and I end up buying too much food then I can handle. __7.__What is your current state of mind? I am nervous about the future but I am excited __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? I cannot think of any. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? I don't usually as lie as much as I used to but when I do it’s probably to get something by my parents. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? My ears. I have some big ears so I usually don’t cut my hair short I like to cover them. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? I can’t really think of an individual who I despise, but I do not like when others think they are better than you. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? Respect. Someone who knows how to respect others and treat others how they would want to be treated. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? Caring. Someone who cares a lot about others. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “ Bro” Now that I think about it I feel like I use that word a lot. I'll say “ What’s up Bro?” or “what bro” if someone said something that didn’t make any sense. __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? I really do not know this one. __16.__When and where were you happiest? Well I had a lot of moments where I was happy, Too many to count. I would have to say when I went out to California for a trip with my family I really enjoyed myself. It was a great week! __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? I always wanted to be talented when it came to sports. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would change my attitude when it comes to important things such as school work or a test. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? My greatest achievement was probably getting a hole in one a couple years ago. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I would like to come back as a bird so I could fly around and travel to wherever I want. __21.__Where would you most like to live? I always wanted to move out west to California and live my life out there. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? I do not own anything that fancy or that expensive but I would say my car would be my most valued possession. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? 2017 was a rough year for me. I lost a lot of loved ones. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? I don't really know. I never had a job where I really loved it. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? I really have no idea what my most marked characteristic is. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? Caring and humor. I need someone who doesn’t just worry about themselves and someone who is funny and makes me laugh. __27.__Who are your favorite writers? Mark Twain is my favorite writer just because I like the book “ Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? Spiderman. He's been my number one since I could remember. __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? This is a hard one. I'm not really sure who I would relate to with. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? To me heroes in real life are the men and women in the U.S. __31.__What are your favorite names? My favorite guy names would be Oscar or James. My favorite girl name would be Jules or Julia. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? When people in your family shower before me and when it is my turn I never have hot water. __33.__What is your greatest regret? My greatest regret is not playing football my senior year of High School. __34.__How would you like to die? I would like to die in my sleep. It would be a very peaceful way to leave this earth. __35.__What is your motto? Visions without action is a daydream. |
Paul ConlanI use this blog to explore the writing process to make meaning. ArchivesCategories |