Deepening Insight

So far really, I have not seen much change in how I think about writing. If I were to look at one of my critiques from earlier in the year maybe I would see something, but currently I have not seen a difference. I have always thought about books the same way, and I don't think anything will change that. When I'm supposed to look at how an author constructs his or her writing, I usually just say, well, that it is written well (unless it's the Twilight Saga).

Learning Happens Sometimes

Teacher comments are meant to degrade children's work and rob them of all dignity. Just kidding, they're meant to help you with learning what you did wrong, and to learn from said mistakes. When I receive a graded assignment, three questions run through my mind. The first is: What took you so long? Second is: What if I have a bad grade? And third is: I'm really hungry, when's lunch? Usually, I'm terrified of what teacher comments may say. Gusto points are basically extra credit, and I don't really see a difference between the two. Oh, you insist on me coming up with something? Well, then Gusto points are basically a way for you to see how us children are handling any extra work you ask (force) us to do on our assignments to, supposedly, make them better.

Four Skinny Trees

I wanted to communicate the emotion of, well, a poem. Not really much to say about the emotion. I was simply told to put it into a poem form. The enjambment does not really mean anything, it just sounds nice. I highlighted words and phrases that connect to Esperanza. They are important because they all are metaphors for Esperanza or her feelings. At many points, Esperanza herself acknowledges this fact.

Writing a French Vine

Writing a vignette is different that writing a simple paragraph. For instance, the paragraph or essay writing involves having scientific or author's tone, where I, we, etc. are not used. A vignette does not have to be written that way, because it is a piece of creative writing, and can be written any way the writer wants. However, they are similar in that they both use everyday writing tools, such as sentence structure, and emphasis to better make a point. I felt that I did a good job of writing the vignette because of the enjambment and paragraph breaks. Also some good images were used. Writing about the person who influenced me in some way was a fun time, as I had done a recent event that was fresh in my mind, and this assignment got me thinking about it more.

The "Revising" of your Paragraph

I gave my paragraph a grade of 92.5%, which I believe is an A- but I'm not sure. My first draft most definitely would have gotten a lower grade, maybe something such as a B or B-. The revisions added a lot to my writing. I had place where I had missing words, or I left out something for the quote, etc. I was missing two quotes entirely! I also needed to cite the quotes correctly.

Whatever You Want (What? It's How You Told Me To Title It)

Well, my first blog is about how I revised my paragraph for Character or Caricature. The first main problem was that I had forgotten to add in any quotes from the book, which I fixed fairly quickly. Then, for each quote I had to add in a description of why the quotes were important. There were some spelling and grammar errors as well, which I caught and fixed. Usually I read through the paragraph repeatedly (2 or 3 times), each time finding more errors to fix than the last. The most difficult things to find are places where the small words repeat. Like when there are two in's or the's next to each other. I did not really feel that revising was really necessary though. But I give revising a 10...
                                           
                                            ...out of three million.

                                            Yeah... not the most fun part of writing.