Blog assignment #15 will be my final blog. I think it is fitting for my final blog to be a final reflection on my growth as a writer throughout this past semester. I used the links Reflective Writing and Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection to help construct my reflection.
For my final reflection I will be responding to the following four questions. Your author identity. How has it changed in this course? My author identity has grown and changed immensely in this course. At the beginning of this course I just considered myself to be a writer. Now I can call myself a blogger, MLA composer, and memorous. Your theory of writing. How has this course impacted the way you define and value writing? Which composition concepts/terms do you most value? This course has greatly impacted the way in which I define and value writing. I previously thought of writing as a task that I just needed to accomplish. I would have a set question in which I needed to respond to and a list of objectives that needed to be completed in my writing. Now I value writer as more than a task that has to be completed, but as composing a meaningful scene that contains showing and telling. The composition term that I value most is discourse community. I never heard of this concept before the first day of my English composition course. Using a discourse community within our classroom allows for us to interact with our peers on our writing assignments. I really appreciated how we were able to view all of our classmates blogs and formal assignments. Whether it was to look for a sense of direction on an assignment or to write a response to one of our classmates blog posts. Your growth as a writer. How are your past academic writing experiences different from your present experiences with writing in this course? How are the past and present experiences the same? My past academic writing experiences were different then my present writing experiences in this course because I learned to value my writing more in this course. Like I mentioned in my response to the previous question I used to think of writing as a task that had a set of objectives that needed to be included to make the writing complete. But in this course I learned that writing contains a process, and the process does not begin with a perfect first draft. I learned that writing is more then just answering a question, writing is meant to show the reader what is happening and let the reader feel all of the emotions that were felt in the scene you are describing. My past academic writing experiences are the same as my present experiences because they are both writing. I had to put together around 1000 words to form a coherent essay that I could turn into my professor to get a grad on. Your knowledge transfer to future writing situations. How do you plan to use your growing writing knowledge to compose texts in future academic and non-academic contexts I plan to use my growing writing knowledge to compose texts in future academic and non-academic contexts by continuing to write and make meaning. I actually enjoyed writing blog posts each week. Maybe I’ll continue blogging. But I know that I will continue to use as much showing and emotions that I can in my writing.
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In blog post number 14 I will be talking about the progress I’ve made with my research project so far. It has been a while since I wrote my last research project. The last research paper that I wrote was a 10 page research assignment on the book A Doll’s House my senior year of high school. This past week I finished writing the first draft of my research project. The question that I used to compose my research project is How can American parents redefine masculinity to their sons?
I used the film The Mask You Live In as a resource for my research. I choose to include multiple quotes from the films transcript in my research project. I choose the quote “Be a man. Stop with the tears, stop with the emotions. If you're going to be a man in this world, you better learn how to dominate and control people and circumstances" (The Mask You Live In 2015). As the attention grabber for the introduction paragraph of my research assignment. I feel like the above quote because it appeals to people's emotions in a sense. The quote talks about the common stereotype that is expected of males all of the time. One part of my research assignment that I struggled with was the thesis statement. In my previous blog post I talked about the TPS thesis statement that we talked about in class. We were given the challenge of using a TPS thesis statement in our research project. I knew who the audience was and what I wanted my thesis topic to be but I could not decide on what I should choose as my three pieces of support. After trying different words as my three pieces of support the thesis that I choose to use was American parents can redefine masculinity to their sons by teaching emotions, acceptance, and confidence. I choose to write my research project in MLA format so I broke my TPS thesis statement down into three paragraphs. In each of the paragraphs I broke down one of my supporting details. One goal that I have for my research project is to make sure that the quotes I choose from the film fit into my writing. I do not want the quotes to seem like they are just thrown into my writing. I want them to flow and help convey the message that I want to get across in my research paper. In blog post number 13 I will be talking about my research paper. The type of research paper I will be writing is an MLA format essay. My research paper is going to be about redefining masculinity. I will use points from the film The Mask You Live In to support my thesis statement. The Mask You Live In is a film that we watched in class that talks about how males are taught to be masculine and drawbacks of not being masculine enough all of the time.
In class on Thursday we discussed thesis statements. The thesis statement is one sentence usually the last sentence of the introduction paragraph that communicates the central claim or the focus of the project. The type of thesis statements that we practiced writing on Thursday was a TPS statement. TPS stands for topic, position, and support. This was the first time I heard about TPS thesis statements. The type of thesis statement that I learned about previously was a three prong thesis statement. I think a three prong thesis statement is similar to a TPS thesis. I plan to use a TPS thesis for my research project. The thesis statement that I intend to use for my research project is American parents can redefine masculinity for their sons by teaching emotions, acceptance and confidence. Using a TPS thesis helps me to show that my intended audience is American parents. This type of thesis also shows that my topic is how parents can redefine masculinity to their sons and my support is using emotions, acceptance and confidence can help to redefine masculinity. Having three pieces of support helps make it easier to construct my essay. The three body paragraphs will individually talk about one of my supporting details. We also talked about introduction paragraphs and the four components. The first part is the hook, the hook should be interesting and summarize the main point. Next is the background information, this is used to define terms and mention the film and any information from the film. The third component is the bridge, 1 or 2 sentences general topic that transitions into your focused topic. The final components of the introduction paragraph is the thesis. The TPS thesis is the last sentence of the introduction paragraph. For my introduction I want the hook to grab the readers attention. So I plan on using a quote from the film. One quote that really stands out to me is "Be a man. Stop with the tears, stop with the emotions. If you're going to be a man in this world, you better learn how to dominate and control people and circumstances." This quote relates to my topic and helps to show that there should be a change in the way that masculinity is defined to American parents sons. In blog post #12 I will be sharing some insight about my research project. I will be analyzing the two films Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In in this blog post. I read through the scripts of both films and broke them down to develop a slug line, six word memoir and a Found Poem.
The slug line that I choose for the film Miss Representation came straight from the script we did not change or add any words. The slug line is “We get conditioned to think that’s what woman look like.” A slug line is similar to a tagline it should grab a person's attention and make them want to learn more about what the slug line is referring to. In Miss Representation the slug line is referring to the common theme in the film which is women have a certain expectation to look and act a certain way all of the time. Next we constructed a six word memoir which was Self Objectified, Unhappy Woman, More Vulnerable. This six word memoir shares a story about all women. Many women self objectify themselves by trying to change their appearance or actions to look more like the women they see in the media. Many women become unhappy with how they look because they don’t meet the certain social expectation. The last part more vulnerable is referring to the way women feel is they don’t meet the expectation or they make changes to themselves that they aren’t confident about. Finally we constructed a Found Poem, We see so much in the media, There’s a concept of the perfect woman, There’s so much negativity, “Something looks fundamentally wrong with her”, We constructed a slug line, six word memoir and a found poem for the film The Mask You Live In as well. The slug line we choose is another quote from the script “The way boys are brought up makes them hide all their natural vulnerable and empathetic feeling behind a mask of masculinity.” We choose this to be the slug line because it is very true. Boys are being raised thinking that it is not okay to show emotion or cry because it is a sign of weakness. The six word memoir we created was Aggressive Friends, Tough Mask, Scared Boy. The first part of the story is referring to the way males always try to seem tough by acting aggressive. The second part refers to the way males hide their emotions behind their “tough mask”. The third part “scared boys” refers to the way boys feel if they show any emotion they’re scared that people will view them as weak. Finally the Found Poem, How hard is that? To walk around everyday with a poker face on. Sometimes I would cry myself to sleep. I felt really depressed and alone, I didn’t have anyone to talk to. Can’t reach out and ask for help because, not allowed to or, won’t be a real boy. This poem really makes me step back and think wow this is true for so many young impressionable boys who just want to be happy and want to express themselves but the way they were raised it’s not an option. In blog post #11 I will be writing a response to the film The Mask You Live In. The Mask You Live In focuses on the way society treats males. The film also talks about the certain expectations upheld for males and how they are treated if they do not meet those expectations.
How does the argument in the film make you feel (impact on your being)? The ongoing argument in the film The Mask You Live In is that males are taught to not show emotions when they are growing up. The taught stereotype for males is that if you cry or show emotions it means you are weak. The argument from the film makes me feel angry about the society that we live in. The way that social acceptance of certain actions by males and females differs so vastly blows my mind. I don’t understand why it’s socially acceptable for females to cry pretty much where ever or when ever and it is not viewed as a sign of weakness or it doesn’t make them less of a female. But if a male cries just once its a sign of weakness. How does the argument in the film make you think (impact on your knowing)? The argument in the film makes me think that males and females should not be forced to act a certain way. If a male wants to show emotions or even cry than he should be allowed to without people passing unwarranted judgement. The same goes for females like I said in my last post if a female does not conform to certain expectations placed on a female no one should pass judgement on her if she is truly happy with the way she is. How does the argument in the film make you want to make change (impact on your doing)? The argument in the film makes me think that there needs to be change. I know that in today's society a lot of people want to see change for a variety of things. But one change we should strive for is the way that we raise our male children. We shouldn’t teach them at young age that it is not acceptable to show emotion and cry. We shouldn’t teach our male children that they have to be tough all of the time no matter what the circumstances. Everyone is human and everyone has emotions. So it is not fair to teach one sex that is acceptable to cry and have emotions then teach the other that it is not allowed to cry and have emotions because it would make them weak. I think this goes both ways. Males shouldn’t be punished for having emotions and females shouldn’t be judged if they are not over emotional. For blog post #10 I will be writing a response about the film Miss Representation. Miss representation is a film that focuses on the way that females are treated or are expected to act on television. The film also talks about the backlash females receive if they do not conform to the expectations.
How does the argument in the film make you feel (impact on your being)? The film Miss Representation focuses on how females are falsely represented in society. The movie has many famous female speakers who share their own personal stories about times they have been criticized for not fitting the expected female mold in society and the media. The argument in the film makes me feel hurt on the inside. As a teenage female I can easily see how females are falsely represented in media and on the television. I can also see why females constantly feel like they may need to conform to the social expectations. Personally I have wanted to change certain aspects of my being because I didn’t think that I fit the expected norms. But as I’ve gotten more experiences in life I don’t feel as pressured to fit those social expectations. How does the argument in the film make you think (impact on your knowing)? The argument in the film makes me think that there needs to be changes in the way that females are viewed. Females are not objects we are humans just like males are human. This being said males and females should be treated equally. Females shouldn’t always be so overly sexualized in the media. That being said females also shouldn’t be criticized if they choose to wear a top that is a little bit more revealing than some people would prefer it be. I know that the needed change won’t come easily. Having an expected look for females on the television has been around for so long. And if a female doesn’t fit that expected look but is on the television or in the media she is widely criticized for not conforming to the social norms. How does the argument in the film make you want to make change (impact on your doing)? The argument in the film makes me want to change because I don’t want to be viewed as an object like females so frequently are. I want to be able to feel happy with the way I look or act without having to constantly worry about being judged because I don’t look or act the way that I am expected to. Since I want to be able to be happy and not feel constantly judged for the choices I make about how I look or how I dress, I try not to judge others. Everyone has a reason for the way that they act. So if their clothing choice isn’t the same as mine I will support them because we are all human and deserve to be happy with life. In this blog post number 9 I will be talking about discourse community and how these three texts speak to the identity of our discourse community. The three texts that I will be basing my information off of are Our Discourse Community Values, What is Literacy? (James Paul Gee) and We Are Many (Pablo Neruda).
In my own words I would describe a discourse community as a group of people all working toward accomplishing the same goal. A discourse community also consists of open communication between others that allows for people to insert feedback to help better other people's work. The first reading titled Our Discourse Community Values, is about the values that we hold within our English composition course. The first value listed states "conceptualize discourse communities as social networks that frame the ethics, expectations, and exigencies of stakeholders who use situated languages to bond with others and to make meaning." I feel like this value helps to further the way that I describe a discourse community in my own words. This first value talks about how a discourse community is a group of people who work together to make meaning because they use situated language. Basically the first value is saying that people are able to connect and help each other because they understand what you are trying to say or difficulties you might be facing in a certain situation. While reading James Paul Gee's text What is Literacy? this quote really stuck out to me "think of discourse as an "identity kit" which come complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act and talk so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize." This quote stuck out to me because I feel like it relates to the discourse community within our classroom. Each week we are given a blog assignment with certain specifications that we are all to follow. After we complete authoring our own blog post for the week we are supposed to comment on our classmates posts. Being part of the discourse community and understanding what was expected to be in the blog posts allows for us to connect more easily to our peers and their writing. The last reading was We Are Many by Pablo Neruda. This reading was a poem. While reading this poem I felt like the final stanza helped speak to what a discourse community is. "While I am writing, I am far away; and when I come back, I have already left. I should like to see if the same thing happens to other people as it does to me, to see if as many people are as I am, and if they seem the same way to themselves. When this problem has been thoroughly explored, I am going to school myself so well in things that, when I try to explain my problems, I shall speak, not of self, but of geography." In this stanza he speaks about wanting to see if people are going through the same things as him when he writes. The discourse community within our classroom allows us to see challenges students within our class may be experiencing with their writing and blog posts each week. Home Page Well-Being Assessment: Functioning.
Why Assessment Summary: The spacing between my quote and header photo needs to be fixed. How Assessment Summary: I plan to fix it by 11:59pm on Tuesday, March 12th. About Page Well-Being Assessment: Functioning. Why Assessment Summary: My answers to the questions were not fully explained. How Assessment Summary: I plan to fix these answers by 11:59pm on Tuesday, March 12th. Contact Page Well-Being Assessment: Flourishing. Why Assessment Summary: I have all of the requirements. Header photo, quote, contact box. How Assessment Summary: Done. Blog Page Well-Being Assessment: Flourishing. Why Assessment Summary: I have 7 blog posts. I have all of T-T-C, header, quote, author bio, images, links. How Assessment Summary: Done. Narrative Project Page Well-Being Assessment: Functioning. Why Assessment Summary: I have what the page needs to be functioning. I do need to add more details about my blog posts and how they helped me prepare to write my narrative. My actual narrative needs work as well. How Assessment Summary: I will add details to my narrative page and correct the writing of my narrative essay by 11:59pm on Tuesday, March 12th. Research Project Page Well-Being Assessment: Flourishing. Why Assessment Summary: I have met all of the requirements for this page so far. How Assessment Summary: Done
For blog post #7 I will be talking about my midterm reflection. During the video I will reflect on how I have changed as a writer during this course so far. I will also talk about how I value writing. Another topic I will discuss is how my past and present writing experiences are different and similar. I used this reflective writing video to help me better understand how to do my reflection.
In blog post #5 I will focus on how I composed the first draft on my narrative assignment using the writing process. Watching the three videos from the Wizard of Oz I was able to gather information on how to write allowing the reader into my heart, brain and the nerve that it takes to share about an emotional time in my life.
Writing my narrative enables me to travel back in my past to a significant emotional event. Using my brain to think back to that event so I can write my narrative I realize how differently I view the event. When the event initially happened I felt so many different emotions and thought that I had reached a really low point in my life. I couldn’t wait for change. My narrative allows me to explore my heart because now I realize all of the emotions that I felt so deeply then are just normal emotions that can be overcome in time. My narrative meets the high-stakes element of storytelling because it allows the reader to be in my shoes and be able to feel exactly how I did in that moment. Writing my narrative also enables me to re-examine the power I have in authoring my life-story because you control how you individually react to event in your life. Thus allowing you to author your life-story depending on your emotions and reactions. In my opinion our sense of identity is shaped through stories we tell ourselves about life events. I think this because when you are telling a story about an event you are incharge of what is shared allowing you to possibly alter the story or keep certain aspects to yourself. |
AshleyI will use this blog to further my knowledge in my English course. Archives
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