Reflection on Open Letter Draft

We're here friends! We made it! Go us! Side note, Sean, you must go on Rate My Professor and look yourself up to cheer up when you're having bad days, because it is like literally so many great reviews its crazy. If you don't already, that might be a good thing to start doing, like seriously.

I peer reviewed Joy and Zayla's open letters in peer review, and in my LAST BLOG POST I will be talking about my draft and plans I have for it as the deadline looms.

Anderson, Jill "The Breakfast Club" 07/29/13 via Just Jilly.

At the moment I am almost done with my final project (good thing too, considering its due in a few hours) but I still have a few things to work on. I definitely showed that I have the ability to think about my writing and myself as a writer. In fact maybe a little too much, because I have plenty of material and I need to make it a little shorter still. Not to mention I need to make it sound more like a letter and less like an essay, that's one of the main things I still have to tweak.

 I specifically made sure that I showed examples of the things I was talking about in my writing by hyperlinking and quoting. Some of my analysis was what actually makes it a little long. I probably need to go back and explain why I made certain choices a little more, even if it is to say "I just felt like it was a good idea" or something.

I honestly had a super fun time in this class, and I am proud of myself for what I have accomplished here. Thank you all for everything!

Draft of Open Letter

Oh mah gawd no I don't like that this class is ending, that means its just gross chemistry and math from here on out, make it stop. But regardless, here is the draft of my open letter for your editing pleasure.

Mattox, Bailey "Sam" 7/16/15 via photos.

I feel alright about what I have.... but I still have a lot to improve on. For example I feel like its perrrrrrty long for a letter, but at the same time there is a lot of information to include. But how about the semi-formal letter conventions at the beginning of the letter? Perusing my peers' blogs, I've seen people doing it a lot of different ways, and looking up semi-formal letter conventions I get a lot of different results. And finally formality: I tried to stay within the conventions of a semi-formal letter, but I also wanted to let my voice show (its kinda hard to keep it in now that it's been let out, it's typically been the reverse in my past projects, huh).

Thank you in advance for the feedback!

Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

THE END IS NEAR. Continuing to prepare for the final, I will be answering questions from my fans (jk just from Sean but I feel all fancy and egotistical answering all of these questions about myself) about some of my experiences in 109H. And also, as it is now December it is socially acceptable for me to post this picture of my dog in a Santa hat. Behold.

Mattox, Bailey "Sammy Clause" 12/25/14 via photos.

1. Biggest challenges this semester.

The biggest challenge this semester for me was finding a routine for homework time. I am used to just doing homework when I get home, but all of a sudden there was too much to just do that and I was getting overwhelmed constantly. I wasn't a happy camper at all. But eventually I realized that it was more effective for me to hang out with friends and go to games and have fun in the early evening and then do homework in the late evening and between classes. 

2. What did you learn about your time management and editorial skills?

I have learned through this semester that its all about experimenting to find what works. At first I was stuck in the rut of my old habits, but once I was able to let go and try new things, I had much more time.  But like I said before, I am very easy to bribe, and so that helped me become much better at time management. Not just pounding through ALL of the homework at once and interspersing it with breaks really helped me become effective. As far as editing, I never would have guessed that I would be able to give the criticism that I did to people I hardly knew. I think it was really good for me to have that experience, because it made me realize that I can give constructive and meaningful advice to most anyone, and give my honest opinion (while still not being mean and offensive). 

3. What do you know about the concept of genre? How is understanding this concept central to becoming a better writer? 

Genre to me is a matter of understanding the whole situation of the prompt you are writing for. I think that it includes knowing your audience, your purpose, your conventions and style, and basically everything that makes a good piece of writing. To me genre is directly tied to purpose and all of those other really important things that make your writing effective. So in regards to that, knowing your genre is essential in creating a piece of writing that does everything you want it to do for your readers.

4. What skills from this course might you use/develop further in the next few years of college coursework?

You know what, I feel like I actually did develop a lot of relevant skills in this course, It didn't feel useless and arbitrary like a lot of classes. For one, my planning skills have skyrocketed, and I really hope that outside of this class I am able to maintain and implement the planning process I was introduced to in this course. On top of that, I feel like I also really learned how to really understand the purpose of my writing and cater to the audience, and this is always going to be relevant whenever I am writing anything in the future. And I really learned how to step back and say "wait, what do I want them to feel?" Also I think I have gotten a lot better at sharing my opinions even through class discussions, and definitely in writing. I think that this will be really helpful later on, and I want to continue to expand on this stating of my opinion. 

5. What was your most effective moment from 109H? 

I think my most effective moment from this course was probably the planning I did for Project 3. I think it was all extremely important to the production of my final draft, and I felt like I really got in depth with it. It actually made putting Project 3 together pretty easy, which was fantastic. It also helped me to just have a really good grasp on the project overall (pending I guess, I don't have my grade for that project yet sooooo we'll see).

6. What was your least effective moment in 109H?

My planning in the beginning of project 1 was just awful. I hardly cared, and I didn't yet understand the importance and helpfulness of planning. Particularity when we had to do the annotated bibliographies in the beginning, those blog posts were pretty useless the way I did them. If I had done more little planning things before then maybe I would have been better about it, but the way it was I just didn't understand yet. And those gosh darn Clarity and Punctuation posts. The first rounds weren't bad, and I got to read on topics I may not have known SO much about. But the SECOND rounds just felt utterly pointless. I felt like during those posts I was once again having to force myself to just get it done instead of actually thinking about it like the rest of the course taught me to. 

Revisiting My Writing Process

LAST PROJECT CAN I GET A WOOT WOOT?! Now that I have completed 3 whole months in college and 3 whole projects in English 109H, I'm going to go back and reread my very first blog posts (awwww memory lane here we come) and reflect. Specifically I'm going to reflect on what has and hasn't changed since then and looking forward to the future of my writing.

Mattox, Bailey "Ruby" 11/25/15 via Photos

My Writing Process

At the beginning of this course and this whole blogging fiasco, I considered myself a Heavy Reviser, and perfectly content to be so. I honestly didn't expect to change much at all. But after all of the blogging and planning before every project, I really think I have changed into more of a heavy planner. I still tend to spew thoughts during the blogging process, but that is a way more productive spewing than what I was doing before. In my first blog post about my writing process, I described my first drafts and outlines as "a jagged jumble of thoughts". But one thing about this course is it literally forces you to start planning FAR before even your outline.  It is actually remarkably relaxing to piece the draft together because I already have so much of what I want to do planned out. As a result revision is pretty easy now, and that's actually pretty nice to have it all together by that stage in the game.Of course since now I spend a lot of my time planning in my head before I write, I still have a tendency to procrastinate on actually writing out what I want to say. But overall, I am pretty surprised how much my writing process has changed for the better because of this course.

Calendar Reflection

THANKFULLY my days have become much less homework-centric. In my Calendar Reflection blog post, I talked about how my time just flew away, and even today sometimes I just can't figure out where it goes, but now I've figured out how to manage my time.  I still haven't had much problem with time for Linguistics, Chemistry, and English, but math is still 4 hours per night. The main difference now is that I found out that I actually work well on a reward system. So for example that day we talked about those horror movie to romantic comedy trailers on YouTube, I started just watching them all. Then I realized I really needed to do homework, and so I made a deal with my self that every blog post I wrote I got to watch one. And so I kept finding things like that to keep me on track. It also kept the process of homework from getting too boring. I'll still get on kicks where I just don't want to do anything and then one night I do EVERYTHING, but now its much more balanced and I have found the time to hang out with friends and go to sporting events and have a life outside of homework.

Looking Forward

This is my last English class EVER and I was sort of expecting it to be nothing new. But actually I really do feel like I have changed and learned a lot because of this class as well as the whole college experience.  As a result of this class I have also begun to understand what is expected of me as a college student, and learned how to step up my game and be open to change.I think I'll always be a little bit of a procrastinator, but at least now I know how to regulate myself. This class was also a lot more self-motivated than I am used to, and this is going to come in really handy as I move forward in my career. I liked the feeling that I was able to figure things out and work for myself, and come for help when I needed it. All together my balancing skills have gotten much better because of this course, and in the future I hope to continue this improvement.

Reflection on Project 3

Ah reflection, here we come. In this post I will be reflecting on Project 3 by answering the questions posed in WPL. In honor of Thanksgiving, enjoy the turkey comics. 

Firestone, Herb "Thanksgiving Day Humor"
11/22/13 via pinterest

1. What specifically was revised from one draft to the other?

Specifically my main revision was the fact that I included the importance of Koko's Kitten as far as the function it fills in teaching children about death. Also I worked on making it so that the emotional appeals were definitely there working their magic, but they weren't so blatantly obvious. 

2. Global changes: How did you reconsider thesis and organization?

I kept my overall argument the same throughout revision, since I think it was pretty clear what I was trying to do with the project. But I changed around the organization a little bit so that I had relevant information that led up to Robin Williams' death concerning Koko's Kitten and it was helpful to my argument. 

3. What led to these changes?

I basically changed this to better achieve the purpose I was trying to fulfill. I wanted my audience to feel nostalgic and be led to my way of thinking through this nostalgia, and so I made changes to make this more possible.

4. How do these changes affect your credibility as a writer?

I think that they don't necessarily impact my credibility. I was trying to do it in a way that wasn't too obvious to my reader, but I feel like maybe by making a stronger case for myself I made myself more credible. 

5. How will these changes better address the audience?

Again it's how I went for the nostalgic feel. I think that considering the generation that I was catering towards, I needed to make these connections to their personal pasts to make my piece more poignant to them. 

Firestone, Herb "Thanksgiving Humor"
11/22/14 via pinterest.

6. Local changes: How did you reconsider sentence structure and style?

I worked on making sure that I was conversational and casual in my sentence structure because this is a convention of my genre. I also liked utilizing the pretty sounding sentence structure that is used in the genre. 

7. How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?

I think that this will for one make  it seem less like I am trying to shove my argument down their throats and more like I a just having a conversation with them. The way that I present my argument isn't very overwhelming and so hopefully this would lead to my audience not feeling attacked. I just want to show them of this different perspective, not change their entire belief system or anything. 

8. Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the genre?

I had to for the title. It seems like a really dumb long title, but believe me, that's what they like in this genre. So I had to find a way to emulate that which was sort of difficult. Also since the genre varies in tone and structure, I had to find and consider the one that would most likely be used for this kind of piece. 

9. How did reflection help you consider your identity as a writer?

It actually makes me feel pretty insightful as a writer to be able to justify my reasoning for what I did or didn't do with this process. I think that reflecting on this makes me feel better about my own writing, because it makes it clear that I wasn't just arbitrarily pounding on keys, I had a plan. And I really like that I am able to consider the reader's needs and change my writing accordingly. 

Publishing Public Argument

The conclusion! The last big project before the final! And it can be found in this very blog post! Here is the link to my Project 3. 

Mattox, Bailey "Puppy" 11/22/15

1. Mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience currently stands on the issue (before reading/watching/hearing your argument) below:

←---------------------------------------x-------------|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

2. Now mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience should be (after they've read/watched/heard your argument) below:

←-----------x-----------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

3. Check one (and only one) of the argument types below for your public argument:

         ___x____ My public argument establishes an original pro position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument establishes an original con position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument clarifies the causes for a problem that is being debated.

         _______ My public argument prooposes a solution for a problem that is being debated.

         _______ My public argument positively evaluate a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm supporting).

         _______ My public argument openly refutes a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm refuting).

4. Briefly explain how your public argument doesn’t simply restate information from other sources, but provides original context and insight into the situation:

By providing a personal insight using the stories about my mother and how Koko has affected my life, I provide original material. But really this topic has not been traditionally covered by looking at the emotional side of the debate. Most of the time people either have their hearts warmed by this story or they argue the facts and logic of the situation: can Koko really understand and repeat human communication. So by focusing on the emotional benefits, I give a side that can be seen in the public has not been reported on or explicitly talked about. 

5. Identify the specific rhetorical appeals you believe you've employed in your public argument below:

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals

                    ___x__ Telling personal stories that establish a credible point-of-view

                    ___x__ Referring to credible sources (established journalism, credentialed experts, etc.)

                    _____ Employing carefully chosen key words or phrases that demonstrate you are credible (proper terminology, strong but clear vocabulary, etc.)

                    _____ Adopting a tone that is inviting and trustworthy rather than distancing or alienating

                    ___x__ Arranging visual elements properly (not employing watermarked images, cropping images carefully, avoiding sloppy presentation)

                    _____ Establishing your own public image in an inviting way (using an appropriate images of yourself, if you appear on camera dressing in a warm or friendly or professional manner, appearing against a background that’s welcoming or credibility-establishing)

                    ___x__ Sharing any personal expertise you may possess about the subject (your identity as a student in your discipline affords you some authority here)

                    ___x__ Openly acknowledging counterarguments and refuting them intelligently

                    ___x__ Appealing openly to the values and beliefs shared by the audience (remember that the website/platform/YouTube channel your argument is designed for helps determine the kind of audience who will encounter your piece)

                    _____ Other: 

Emotional appeals

                    ___x__ Telling personal stories that create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    ___x__ Telling emotionally compelling narratives drawn from history and/or the current culture

                    ___x__ Employing the repetition of key words or phrases that create an appropriate emotional impact

                    ___x__ Employing an appropriate level of formality for the subject matter (through appearance, formatting, style of language, etc.)

                    _____ Appropriate use of humor for subject matter, platform/website, audience

                    _____ Use of “shocking” statistics in order to underline a specific point

                    ___x__ Use of imagery to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Employing an attractive color palette that sets an appropriate emotional tone (no clashing or ‘ugly’ colors, no overuse of too many variant colors, etc.)

                    _____ Use of music to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Use of sound effects to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    ____ Employing an engaging and appropriate tone of voice for the debate

                    __x___ Other: Connecting back to the audience's own childhood/personal life to create nostalgic feeling

Logical or rational appeals

                    _____ Using historical records from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    _____ Using statistics from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    _____ Using interviews from stakeholders that help affirm your stance or position

                    _____ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position

                    __x___ Effective organization of elements, images, text, etc.

                    __x___ Clear transitions between different sections of the argument (by using title cards, interstitial music, voiceover, etc.)

                    __x___ Crafted sequencing of images/text/content in order to make linear arguments

                    _____ Intentional emphasis on specific images/text/content in order to strengthen argument

                    _____ Careful design of size/color relationships between objects to effectively direct the viewer’s attention/gaze (for visual arguments)

                    _____ Other: 

6. Below, provide us with working hyperlinks to THREE good examples of the genre you've chosen to write in. These examples can come from Blog Post 11.3 or they can be new examples. But they should all come from the same specific website/platform and should demonstrate the conventions for your piece:

http://www.avclub.com/article/ghosts-and-monsters-were-least-scary-part-goosebum-226431

http://www.avclub.com/article/25-years-later-teen-witch-still-fun-yet-little-rid-210843

http://www.avclub.com/article/despite-dystopia-lit-burnout-giver-keeps-giving-208176

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

For my peer reivew, I looked at Michaela and Grace's drafts. The review sheets can be found here: MICHAELA'S REVIEW SHEET, GRACE'S REVIEW SHEET.

Now that Draft 3 is complete, I am going to take this post to evaluate the process I have undergone thus far in Project 3.

Mattox, Bailey "Sammy" 11/15/15

Grace reviewed my project 3 rough draft. Since I had just done an outline of sorts for my draft and where I was going to put evidence and had not yet added all of the specific evidence, most of her advice was stuff I was already going to do. I thought it was a bit confusing that she told me to make separate paragraphs for rebuttal arguments because that's what I thought I had already done. But I did like her advice about appealing directly to the audience, and was able to use that in revision.

I think that I need to focus in a little on what my purpose is and achieving my purpose, as well as my argumentation. I think that with another revision of two I could add in some extra phrases and ideas that could help strengthen these.

After peer review and conferences I am feeling pretty confident about the direction I want to take in my draft. I think that the advice I received will really help to make this project successful and really make my audience think the way I want them to.