Meta-Blogging.

Blogging has to be one of the best experiences I have ever had with writing. I get to write the way I want to write. I don’t have to be formal or write a specific way. I don’t have to use paragraphs, write a works cited but I do have a set minimum. Usually when I have a set number of words, pages or even paragraphs it drives me nuts because I feel like I’m just writing to get to that number and get it done. But with the blogs it doesn’t seem like that, I start just writing of the top of my head and not thinking about errors and grammar and sentence structure but just writing what I’m thinking or want to say and I exceeds that minimum. Sometimes I struggle with coming up with my own topic to write about especially since we had that whole discussion on having a point when you write. Thanks to Ms. Wright now I have alternative topics to write about if I need them. I think I am growing as a writer because I’m learning to take chances with my writing and not worry about what’s wrong with what I’m writing because I can always go back and make it better. My first blog was on my first week of school and how hectic it was but I know the experience in the end will be worthwhile. I know that this will be one of those blogs I’m going to look back on in the future and see how much everything has changed and laugh about it. Best experiences. Blogging will be one of those experiences I will look back on. 

Peer Reviewing...

Peer review this week has been going great to me. I can admit I was extremely nervous at first, not only about my peers reading my papers but knowing that I was going to have to be the judge of someone else’s memoir. Then I thought about it, I’m not there to judge anyone’s paper but to help them build a stronger paper. I remembered the article we read on Really Responding to Other Student’s writing. Once we got into our groups in class, my group decided that it would be best if we just read through the first paper together and then go over any comments we had to say, which was not what we were assigned to do. So we started over having to read our own paper out loud to everyone else and that made a massive difference. Reading out loud made me realize some of my mistakes in my memoir, listen to how my paper sounded to others and allowed them to hear how my paper was meant to sound. That was something I wish I would have thought to do many times in high school.

After reading the papers I was given all kinds of comments and feedback from my group members. The comments they gave me were more than what I expected, more than the usual grammar errors. They told me where I need to elaborate on things because to me I already know the people in my paper or the point I’m trying to get across in some sentences but that wasn’t coming across in my memoir. The homework that night, adding our comments on Microsoft word, gave me a chance to really say what I didn’t get to say in class and what I didn’t know how to say. I added anything I could think of in my comments that wasn’t clear, what I would like to know more on and where they were trying convey. When I was finished with my margin comments, I took the advice from the assigned reading and added a final mini paragraph at the end to summarize up my thoughts and add one final question.

The hardest struggle for me this far is coming up with the point in my own paper. I didn’t want a point that just summed up my memoir but a point that I could state and everyone of my examples lead back to that specific point. I’ve got somewhat of an idea and think I’m on the right track but I’m sure after these peer reviews I’ll have a pretty concise point in the end. 

Why i'm still here...

Why I’m here continued…..

For today’s blog I wanted to continue on the free write from earlier because well I liked the topic or point!

I choose to come to college because I want to want to better myself in every way possible. Of course my mom played a big role in pushing me in this direction but it was ultimately my decision. Not many people in my family have graduated from college and I would be one of my grandmother’s first grandchildren to graduate. My parents would be beyond proud of me especially since my mom’s still in school furthering her degree and it’s inspirational to me. My dad never finished high school actually I think he dropped out his freshman year and I know me graduating from college would make him feel like he’s done something right. My closest friend just graduated last year from UNC Charlotte with superb grades and seeing the pressure he took on makes me have ten times more respect for him even if I’ve never told him that. I know I can do it and there’s no reason that I cannot. I have more than enough support.

College is suppose to help you get the better jobs and make more money and experience things you can only experience in college. I came to college to get all of that. I came to college not only for myself but for my family too. To make them and myself proud. I’m hoping that college will help me get far in life to where I won’t have to struggle as much. This should be an interesting couple of years.