In-class Writing
8/28/08
One piece of advice that Lamott gives is that writing is not easy. She suggests that your first draft will probably be very unorganized and poorly written. However it is very important to write down any ideas or topics that come to your mind because you could end up using them as a lead in the long run. She also advises you to quiet all of the voices in your head. Your writing will come much easier if your mind isn't having conversations with imaginary people.
As Lamott has mentioned I also realize that my first draft is always going to be pretty terrible. I just accept that fact and get down all of my ideas and then realize that I will be revising it in future drafts.
I agree with everything that Lamott has to say in this article. It is very easy to let your mind wonder or get off task when writing a paper, novel, or any piece of work. The biggest thing is to try to stay focused on the task that is at hand.
9/9/08
Throughout our reading I learned how important decorum is to creating a visual argument. In other words using appropriate images and text that will work together to reach the audience. The audience will also be able to decode the message in a fairly easy manner. I also learned about parody, which is using another text's properties to change the meaning around and make an independent argument. Parody helps strengthen an argument and adds emotion to the visual.
These techniques in creating visual arguments could both help me. At least they give me some background on what goes into visual arguments to affect the audience. Otherwise I wouldn't have known where to start. I now realize that you have to recognize your audience and reach out to them. It doesn't really matter how you perceive the argument, it matters how your audience perceives it.
10/28/08
I believe Halloween is an opportunity for you to be anything that you want to. In high school one of my teachers told us that Halloween is just a day where little kids dress up as things that they will never be. After a while I thought about it and I kind of just reversed what she said. It gives you the chance to become anything that you want for the day. You can be your favorite super hero or your favorite actor or actress, or maybe even your favorite athletic star. This holiday is like no other in the fact that it has no limits. You can become anything you set your mind to, or at least anything that you can create a costume for. Halloween also allows you concel your identiy behind that costume if you please. Therefore, others won't know who you are on this opportunitistic holiday.
11/18/08
After reading through the review over the Harry Potter movie I learned a lot about what goes into a review. I noticed that the author of the review adds a partial reflection of what they thought about the book or movie in this case. Along with that they have to some what summarize the movie in order to give the viewers an idea of what they are going to be watching. However, they don't want to give away to much information, so that they reveal the entire movie to the audience. Another thing that I noticed about this review is that it made several allusions to other popular examples relating to this movie. I have noticed in several reviews that they try to relate things in the movie they are writing a review for in order to allow the audience to relate to the movie.
