My writing process is very interesting to me but I don’t think it’s abnormal. First, I figured out what two authors I was going to use out of three options given and highlighted a couple of quotes from each author that I could potentially use for my writing. I made a list of ideas I could use for Turkle, Carr and then one for where I stood with my opinions. Then I just put all my thoughts onto a doc and started writing even if the sentences don’t make the most sense. It’s better for me to just get my ideas out because sometimes I have good ones that just don’t tie into my writing at that moment but could use it at some point. I have learned lots about writing in these past months like how to have better transition sentences and organization of my paragraphs. So what I did was I put my quotes in with kind of bad and basic starters then I went back and switched them out for better ones that I’ve learned from our book. For this essay I really focused on having strong words and good grammar. In the past, I wouldn’t ever fully revise my essay but since doing peer reviews and learning new things I have come to be much better. I have learned how to edit my own paper better and use others’ comments to make mine better. Along with realizing how important it is as it makes your essay a lot stronger. A good technique I learned for barbaric paragraphs was to highlight my thoughts, Carrs and then Turkle’s to make sure I evenly worked our thoughts together. Going forward I’m going to work on my thesis statements being stronger although I do feel I have a pretty strong one I want to focus on getting better at that. My thesis changed while I was drafting but once I had my thoughts put together, I was able to make a pretty good one. I put a lot of effort into my last essay, and I feel I put more into this essay just because I had learned new techniques to involve into this essay and better editing strategies. I also had to think harder because I wanted to do my best work, so I was trying my best to evenly put my thoughts, Carr and Turkle’s together.
To start my essay, I look for quotes that I think could be useful in the paper. Once I figure out which articles I want to use that is when I choose the quote, then I will move on to figuring out my thesis and creating an introduction paragraph and first body paragraph. The layout of the essay, in the beginning, is very crazy looking and does not feel organized at all. Sometimes quotes sit by themselves until I start working on a new paragraph to work them into. This is pretty much the same as any past writing projects I have had to do. Something that has changed in that is how much I focus on unpacking and making sure that the quote really does fit with the point I am trying to get across. Throughout my writing process, I go through and make sure spelling, grammar, layout, formatting, and citations are all correct. I learned that it is very helpful to have templates to lead you in the right direction of setting up a paragraph or explaining a quote, leading into a quote, etc. I also discovered that I can get really hard to feel like I am staying up to date with deadlines, but as long as I can pull myself away from any outside distractions, lock in and get my work done, I will meet those deadlines, easy. It especially gets difficult to meet some deadlines when there is more work than just working on the essay. My brain power focuses solely on the essay, the little assignments are harder to focus on when that is my main focus. I try my best to follow the instructions that are given, if they are not completely followed that is just because I maybe interpreted them differently than they were intended to be. Every time I finish a paragraph, meet a deadline, come up with a good sentence or idea to add to my essay I feel accomplished.
I think my process was pretty linear with this project. I wrote my introduction, first coming up with a topic sentence, then filling out the rest of the paragraph. Then, I started a thesis, but left it kind of bare because I wasn’t totally sure where the essay was going yet. Then, I started my first paragraph by going into the texts to look for meaningful passages that I could connect. Then I shaved down/molded those quotes to convey the message in the most clear way possible, trying not to add too much or too little. Next I started creating the paragraph in the Barclays formula, starting with the introduction/claim, then introducing the quote, then actually writing in the quote. I continued by summarizing the quote and then connecting it to the next one, where I then introduced the second quote. I did the same thing for the second quote that I did for the first. Then, I started analyzing the quote by connecting the two and then adding on my own thoughts. Next, I did the same thing with the next paragraph. After all of that, I went back to my thesis statement and adjusted it to include my ideas from both paragraphs. Then, I created my conclusion, where I focused on summarizing my ideas and adding another couple of them to end the essay. This time, I feel like there was less major revising to do after I finished the first writing, because I know better now how to write these essays. The first time, I was missing a lot of major components like topic sentences for my body paragraphs, and a thesis statement that left out a lot of information. This time, I didn’t need to be reminded of these components. The first time I had to write a Barclays paragraph I definitely had some major issues, but after we went through some examples in class, I feel like I was able to translate that feedback to my writing pretty well. I feel like my first drafts are getting a lot better the more I write. I feel like next time, I could go into it with ideas or quotes in mind. Maybe I will do a little research and read through the major points of the papers again, and also revisit the journals where I discussed those major points in order to get some inspiration.
When writing essay 2, my process was similar but slightly different to how I usually would write an essay. I started by first picking my 2 favorite essays to report on. Then I went through and found quotes that I could relate to each other. I made my introduction paragraph and then turned the quotes I found into body paragraphs. I used a Barclays paragraph when putting in my quotes. I did this by introducing my topic, then introducing my first quote. Next I explained that quote briefly and then introduced and included my last quote. I completed the paragraph by analyzing the two quotes and how they relate. The Braclays paragraph was something I had never done before. Something else that I did differently was my thesis. Usually I would try to make my thesis towards the beginning, but for this project I waited until the end to fully finish my thesis. This was helpful as I knew what points I made rather than guessing what points I think I’m going to make. I also tried to make my points more clear than I had in the past. I learned to follow the requirements of the assignment but to not restrict myself to those. I also learned that you don’t have to go in order from paragraph to paragraph. You can jump around and start at whatever point works best for you.
The success I would like to spotlight is that I tried to include a counter argument which I had not done in the last essay. I tried to explain how others would disagree with me but then I further backed myself up. I think this will really help to strengthen my essay and my writing skills in the future. For writing I have to do later on, I would like to work on continuing to add more of my thoughts in my essays, and to not procrastinate as much. I will work on doing my project piece by piece days before so I am not doing it all the night before to be more successful.
Overall, I think my writing skills have improved but I will continue to work to improve them further. I did a lot of things the same but I also did a lot of things differently. I think some of my techniques worked well and I would like to use them in future essays.
My process for this project was different from my last. This time when writing, my paragraphs took much longer to divided into more than just one. My earlier writing had 5 paragraphs by the second draft, while this one had only 1 until I moved into my last draft. I have learned that I work much better with draft deadlines than just one final draft due. This gives me the structure to think about it and not just wait till the last day to do it. I have learned that I write better alone with no distractions, in a quiet place. I was extremely focused on my sentence structure and making sure I had no run on sentences or comma splices. Working with a tutor helped me to expose said mistakes so I could go back and fix them. I feel much more confident about finding them myself. Going into our next project, I need to better edit my own essay and fully read it from draft to draft, not just add on. I think this will help the editing process go much smoother as I would not be doing it all at once. I feel that this project took more effort than the last as we worked with multiple sources. I feel that even though I worked with Turkle in both essays, they both have different meanings and gave me more to think about. I think my writing skills are improving and believe there is more improvement to be done.
Deciding which authors I wanted to focus on and coming up with examples I could use to entice the readers to finish what I wrote was the first step. For project 1, I focused more on technology’s impact on empathy during COVID-19 especially how it affected me while in 8th grade. However in project #2 I focused more on how the broader aspect of technology affects us, going into a deeper analysis on Turkle’s and Carr’s views on technology and human interactions. What looked like a simple first task turned out to be very hard because I had to find links between what both authors said and things I already knew.
By laying out my essay, I was able to link Turkle and Carr’s main ideas to events in my own life. This made it possible for me to connect theory and personal thinking in a real way. During the draft stage, I wrote in two or three long sessions, taking breaks in between to stay on task and come up with new ideas for the work. It was stressful to write everything down all at once. Things went more smoothly this way, and it helped me see things better. I went back and rewrote it to make it clearer and more in-depth. I used the comments from my peers to make sure that my experiences really did match up with Turkle and Carr’s ideas. They helped me stay on track with my project goals and gave me some new ideas. This kind of feedback process was new to me and as I said, very helpful.
Through this project, I learnt how important it is to be able to combine theoretical and personal thoughts. This helped me understand Turkle and Carr’s points better and find useful ways to use them. Two big changes I made to my process were to plan breaks and get comments from other people. These helped me make my points more clear and my work better. By setting clear goals, like finishing the draft in sessions, the project also taught me how important it is to meet targets. This kept me on track and organized.
Most of my work was done when I went back and revised, making things simpler and giving more examples. Using my own life situations helped the academic points become more clear and simple to understand. Next time, I want to be better about not putting things off, so I’m going to break them up into smaller goals. It felt like this first project was more finished than the last one, especially when it came to combining real stories with academic ideas. Putting in the extra time and work into revising, my work helped the essay’s flow better and they had more meaning.
My process for the second project began with a rough draft using approximately 200 words developing an introduction, a thesis, and some main ideas. I bounced my introduction off of a few other classmates’ work that I found to be effective. I then began formulating paragraphs using topic sentences and pulling quotes from the 2 sources that were able to counter argue each other and flow nicely for ym development of the BarClay paragraphs. Once I had some basic ideas I met with Alexa for the first time so that she might be able to give me some good ideas to run with on how to strengthen the writing, the flow and the overall development of the essay. Once we exchanged copies for the peer revision I took the feedback I received and used it to clarify some convoluted points. Once I was able to refine the essay a little more and strengthen up my arguments I realized that one of the quotes that I used was not very cohesive with my argument so I worked to find one that worked with the position. Finally I met with Alexa for a second time so that I could get some suggestions on final edits and the overall flow and quality of the essay. During revision time in class I used those final suggestions and did 2 proof reads to ensure that the final product was as strong as I could make it. This process overall was similar to project 1, however, this time around I made sure to procrastinate less with the dead lines and used more of the resources at my disposal. Meeting with Alexa earlier on allowed me to receive some suggestions early on so that I could develop my essay around it instead of trying to implement them later on. I was really happy with the final product of my essay. I felt that I put a lot of effort into getting the best results I could and followed the suggestions of my peers, resources, Alexa, and my professor a spotlight that I am proud of would be on my quote analysis, I felt that I was able to really go into depth with the material and analyze what was being said while inserting my own opinions. I need to work to make sure that my writing has strong flow, cohesive wording, and strong transitions. To do this I will do more proofreading as I go along instead of reading it all together at the end.
Most of my writing process was just planning out which quotes I was going to use from each of my sources and how I was going to connect them together with my own thoughts and opinions. My process for this essay was fairly similar to previous essays, however, I did have to put a bit more thought into it because there was more than one source involved. I was also using sources with opposing viewpoints to each other, and I wanted to include the naysayer in my writing without discrediting my own claims and while still connecting all of the works together cohesively. Accomplishing that proved to be harder than I thought it would be, at least for it to be up to par with what I think is good writing. It also took me significantly longer to actually formulate my thoughts and put them together on the page because there was so much information for me to sort through and so many possibilities for how I could set up my essay to the point where it was a bit overwhelming. I know that it is a necessary skill and I will have to be able to connect several sources together in one piece in order to support my own claims, and I have done so before, but for some reason this essay was a bit more stressful and harder to formulate. However, I feel I was very successful in maintaining a good they say/I say balance and I am fairly proud of how I worded the majority of my essay. This was writing that I think I can be proud of, and I think it was because I did spend so much time planning it out then writing and rewriting it until I liked how it was worded. On the other hand, I do think I need to allot more time for me to sit down and power through my writing, as many times I would be in the zone and have to stop to head to class or switch to another assignment in order to get everything done. Most of that is because my time management skills are not great. They are there, but they aren’t great and it causes a few of my assignments to be rushed or even late occasionally. In comparison to the first essay, I’d say I put a lot more effort into this one compared to the last. The first one kind of wrote itself and I didn’t have to put hours on top of hours into it, whereas with this one I had to spend a lot of time planning and writing in order to get a decent product.
8 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 20”
My writing process is very interesting to me but I don’t think it’s abnormal. First, I figured out what two authors I was going to use out of three options given and highlighted a couple of quotes from each author that I could potentially use for my writing. I made a list of ideas I could use for Turkle, Carr and then one for where I stood with my opinions. Then I just put all my thoughts onto a doc and started writing even if the sentences don’t make the most sense. It’s better for me to just get my ideas out because sometimes I have good ones that just don’t tie into my writing at that moment but could use it at some point. I have learned lots about writing in these past months like how to have better transition sentences and organization of my paragraphs. So what I did was I put my quotes in with kind of bad and basic starters then I went back and switched them out for better ones that I’ve learned from our book. For this essay I really focused on having strong words and good grammar. In the past, I wouldn’t ever fully revise my essay but since doing peer reviews and learning new things I have come to be much better. I have learned how to edit my own paper better and use others’ comments to make mine better. Along with realizing how important it is as it makes your essay a lot stronger. A good technique I learned for barbaric paragraphs was to highlight my thoughts, Carrs and then Turkle’s to make sure I evenly worked our thoughts together. Going forward I’m going to work on my thesis statements being stronger although I do feel I have a pretty strong one I want to focus on getting better at that. My thesis changed while I was drafting but once I had my thoughts put together, I was able to make a pretty good one. I put a lot of effort into my last essay, and I feel I put more into this essay just because I had learned new techniques to involve into this essay and better editing strategies. I also had to think harder because I wanted to do my best work, so I was trying my best to evenly put my thoughts, Carr and Turkle’s together.
To start my essay, I look for quotes that I think could be useful in the paper. Once I figure out which articles I want to use that is when I choose the quote, then I will move on to figuring out my thesis and creating an introduction paragraph and first body paragraph. The layout of the essay, in the beginning, is very crazy looking and does not feel organized at all. Sometimes quotes sit by themselves until I start working on a new paragraph to work them into. This is pretty much the same as any past writing projects I have had to do. Something that has changed in that is how much I focus on unpacking and making sure that the quote really does fit with the point I am trying to get across. Throughout my writing process, I go through and make sure spelling, grammar, layout, formatting, and citations are all correct. I learned that it is very helpful to have templates to lead you in the right direction of setting up a paragraph or explaining a quote, leading into a quote, etc. I also discovered that I can get really hard to feel like I am staying up to date with deadlines, but as long as I can pull myself away from any outside distractions, lock in and get my work done, I will meet those deadlines, easy. It especially gets difficult to meet some deadlines when there is more work than just working on the essay. My brain power focuses solely on the essay, the little assignments are harder to focus on when that is my main focus. I try my best to follow the instructions that are given, if they are not completely followed that is just because I maybe interpreted them differently than they were intended to be. Every time I finish a paragraph, meet a deadline, come up with a good sentence or idea to add to my essay I feel accomplished.
I think my process was pretty linear with this project. I wrote my introduction, first coming up with a topic sentence, then filling out the rest of the paragraph. Then, I started a thesis, but left it kind of bare because I wasn’t totally sure where the essay was going yet. Then, I started my first paragraph by going into the texts to look for meaningful passages that I could connect. Then I shaved down/molded those quotes to convey the message in the most clear way possible, trying not to add too much or too little. Next I started creating the paragraph in the Barclays formula, starting with the introduction/claim, then introducing the quote, then actually writing in the quote. I continued by summarizing the quote and then connecting it to the next one, where I then introduced the second quote. I did the same thing for the second quote that I did for the first. Then, I started analyzing the quote by connecting the two and then adding on my own thoughts. Next, I did the same thing with the next paragraph. After all of that, I went back to my thesis statement and adjusted it to include my ideas from both paragraphs. Then, I created my conclusion, where I focused on summarizing my ideas and adding another couple of them to end the essay. This time, I feel like there was less major revising to do after I finished the first writing, because I know better now how to write these essays. The first time, I was missing a lot of major components like topic sentences for my body paragraphs, and a thesis statement that left out a lot of information. This time, I didn’t need to be reminded of these components. The first time I had to write a Barclays paragraph I definitely had some major issues, but after we went through some examples in class, I feel like I was able to translate that feedback to my writing pretty well. I feel like my first drafts are getting a lot better the more I write. I feel like next time, I could go into it with ideas or quotes in mind. Maybe I will do a little research and read through the major points of the papers again, and also revisit the journals where I discussed those major points in order to get some inspiration.
When writing essay 2, my process was similar but slightly different to how I usually would write an essay. I started by first picking my 2 favorite essays to report on. Then I went through and found quotes that I could relate to each other. I made my introduction paragraph and then turned the quotes I found into body paragraphs. I used a Barclays paragraph when putting in my quotes. I did this by introducing my topic, then introducing my first quote. Next I explained that quote briefly and then introduced and included my last quote. I completed the paragraph by analyzing the two quotes and how they relate. The Braclays paragraph was something I had never done before. Something else that I did differently was my thesis. Usually I would try to make my thesis towards the beginning, but for this project I waited until the end to fully finish my thesis. This was helpful as I knew what points I made rather than guessing what points I think I’m going to make. I also tried to make my points more clear than I had in the past. I learned to follow the requirements of the assignment but to not restrict myself to those. I also learned that you don’t have to go in order from paragraph to paragraph. You can jump around and start at whatever point works best for you.
The success I would like to spotlight is that I tried to include a counter argument which I had not done in the last essay. I tried to explain how others would disagree with me but then I further backed myself up. I think this will really help to strengthen my essay and my writing skills in the future. For writing I have to do later on, I would like to work on continuing to add more of my thoughts in my essays, and to not procrastinate as much. I will work on doing my project piece by piece days before so I am not doing it all the night before to be more successful.
Overall, I think my writing skills have improved but I will continue to work to improve them further. I did a lot of things the same but I also did a lot of things differently. I think some of my techniques worked well and I would like to use them in future essays.
My process for this project was different from my last. This time when writing, my paragraphs took much longer to divided into more than just one. My earlier writing had 5 paragraphs by the second draft, while this one had only 1 until I moved into my last draft. I have learned that I work much better with draft deadlines than just one final draft due. This gives me the structure to think about it and not just wait till the last day to do it. I have learned that I write better alone with no distractions, in a quiet place. I was extremely focused on my sentence structure and making sure I had no run on sentences or comma splices. Working with a tutor helped me to expose said mistakes so I could go back and fix them. I feel much more confident about finding them myself. Going into our next project, I need to better edit my own essay and fully read it from draft to draft, not just add on. I think this will help the editing process go much smoother as I would not be doing it all at once. I feel that this project took more effort than the last as we worked with multiple sources. I feel that even though I worked with Turkle in both essays, they both have different meanings and gave me more to think about. I think my writing skills are improving and believe there is more improvement to be done.
Deciding which authors I wanted to focus on and coming up with examples I could use to entice the readers to finish what I wrote was the first step. For project 1, I focused more on technology’s impact on empathy during COVID-19 especially how it affected me while in 8th grade. However in project #2 I focused more on how the broader aspect of technology affects us, going into a deeper analysis on Turkle’s and Carr’s views on technology and human interactions. What looked like a simple first task turned out to be very hard because I had to find links between what both authors said and things I already knew.
By laying out my essay, I was able to link Turkle and Carr’s main ideas to events in my own life. This made it possible for me to connect theory and personal thinking in a real way. During the draft stage, I wrote in two or three long sessions, taking breaks in between to stay on task and come up with new ideas for the work. It was stressful to write everything down all at once. Things went more smoothly this way, and it helped me see things better. I went back and rewrote it to make it clearer and more in-depth. I used the comments from my peers to make sure that my experiences really did match up with Turkle and Carr’s ideas. They helped me stay on track with my project goals and gave me some new ideas. This kind of feedback process was new to me and as I said, very helpful.
Through this project, I learnt how important it is to be able to combine theoretical and personal thoughts. This helped me understand Turkle and Carr’s points better and find useful ways to use them. Two big changes I made to my process were to plan breaks and get comments from other people. These helped me make my points more clear and my work better. By setting clear goals, like finishing the draft in sessions, the project also taught me how important it is to meet targets. This kept me on track and organized.
Most of my work was done when I went back and revised, making things simpler and giving more examples. Using my own life situations helped the academic points become more clear and simple to understand. Next time, I want to be better about not putting things off, so I’m going to break them up into smaller goals. It felt like this first project was more finished than the last one, especially when it came to combining real stories with academic ideas. Putting in the extra time and work into revising, my work helped the essay’s flow better and they had more meaning.
My process for the second project began with a rough draft using approximately 200 words developing an introduction, a thesis, and some main ideas. I bounced my introduction off of a few other classmates’ work that I found to be effective. I then began formulating paragraphs using topic sentences and pulling quotes from the 2 sources that were able to counter argue each other and flow nicely for ym development of the BarClay paragraphs. Once I had some basic ideas I met with Alexa for the first time so that she might be able to give me some good ideas to run with on how to strengthen the writing, the flow and the overall development of the essay. Once we exchanged copies for the peer revision I took the feedback I received and used it to clarify some convoluted points. Once I was able to refine the essay a little more and strengthen up my arguments I realized that one of the quotes that I used was not very cohesive with my argument so I worked to find one that worked with the position. Finally I met with Alexa for a second time so that I could get some suggestions on final edits and the overall flow and quality of the essay. During revision time in class I used those final suggestions and did 2 proof reads to ensure that the final product was as strong as I could make it. This process overall was similar to project 1, however, this time around I made sure to procrastinate less with the dead lines and used more of the resources at my disposal. Meeting with Alexa earlier on allowed me to receive some suggestions early on so that I could develop my essay around it instead of trying to implement them later on. I was really happy with the final product of my essay. I felt that I put a lot of effort into getting the best results I could and followed the suggestions of my peers, resources, Alexa, and my professor a spotlight that I am proud of would be on my quote analysis, I felt that I was able to really go into depth with the material and analyze what was being said while inserting my own opinions. I need to work to make sure that my writing has strong flow, cohesive wording, and strong transitions. To do this I will do more proofreading as I go along instead of reading it all together at the end.
Most of my writing process was just planning out which quotes I was going to use from each of my sources and how I was going to connect them together with my own thoughts and opinions. My process for this essay was fairly similar to previous essays, however, I did have to put a bit more thought into it because there was more than one source involved. I was also using sources with opposing viewpoints to each other, and I wanted to include the naysayer in my writing without discrediting my own claims and while still connecting all of the works together cohesively. Accomplishing that proved to be harder than I thought it would be, at least for it to be up to par with what I think is good writing. It also took me significantly longer to actually formulate my thoughts and put them together on the page because there was so much information for me to sort through and so many possibilities for how I could set up my essay to the point where it was a bit overwhelming. I know that it is a necessary skill and I will have to be able to connect several sources together in one piece in order to support my own claims, and I have done so before, but for some reason this essay was a bit more stressful and harder to formulate. However, I feel I was very successful in maintaining a good they say/I say balance and I am fairly proud of how I worded the majority of my essay. This was writing that I think I can be proud of, and I think it was because I did spend so much time planning it out then writing and rewriting it until I liked how it was worded. On the other hand, I do think I need to allot more time for me to sit down and power through my writing, as many times I would be in the zone and have to stop to head to class or switch to another assignment in order to get everything done. Most of that is because my time management skills are not great. They are there, but they aren’t great and it causes a few of my assignments to be rushed or even late occasionally. In comparison to the first essay, I’d say I put a lot more effort into this one compared to the last. The first one kind of wrote itself and I didn’t have to put hours on top of hours into it, whereas with this one I had to spend a lot of time planning and writing in order to get a decent product.