Regards!

     Grammar and Composition was a fantastic class to take. It really helped me learn to write better and be more confident in my writing. I think you have to have some devotion to writing in order to take this class. You do have homework and a good amount of it too! But there comes a time when it doesnt really feel like homework but something you actually like doing.
     The multigenre project was by far my favorite project. You are given such freedom and choice in what you do. After you are flanked with a few research papers, the idea of doing another one seems deathly. So, when you are finally able to write whatever you want about whatever you want it the choices are endless! And then suddenly, all those poems and writing exercises you did throughout the year, help you! You can choose to do a poem that you learned how to write in the beginning of first quarter. I loved that project.
     If you are a person that is thinking about taking this class in the future, some advice I could give you is:

• Do not be lazy!

  If you dont have time for homework, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Or, like I did, make time. I found myself scrawling out paragraphs on napkins at work. You have to be able to manage your time.

• Use class time!

  When a teacher gives you time to work on a project in class, use it wisely! Dont spend it talking to your friends, sleeping, or reading. Get your stuff done when the teacher lets you.

• Allow people to read your work and critique it.

     Nobody is going to flat out tell you that your work sucks! Don't freak out about someone correcting some grammar mistakes on your paper. They are trying to help you, not insult you. Don't be afraid to helo someone on their work either. I promise, if you find a spelling mistake and fix it, they will be happy that you caught it before they turned it in.

• Don't wait until last minute.

    No one likes to be up until two in the morning trying to write a paper on Sex Education. I promise, been there, done that. This one is kind of self explanitory.

• Have fun with your pieces.

     Don't choose subjects that you dont care about because reading about it will not be fun. The more interested you are in something, the easier it will be to research it.

    All in all, I loved this class. I think it was helpful and taught me how to wirte better. Take this class! You will learn a lot if you pay attention and try hard in it!

  

Why I Write

It's hard to pick a reason that I write. I love to write even if I'm not the best at it. I think it's a good way to relax and really get my thoughts out. Sometimes, it makes me feel better to just write things out. Writing letters to people has always been something that I do when I need to let them know how I feel. I think I just enjoy writing. I never let anyone read my free writing. I hate being forced to have others read my writing in school, but if I learned anything in this class, it is that you have to let people read your writing sometimes and if they like it, Great. If not, oh, well. No one is going to totally rip your writing to shreads in school, so you just have to get over it and let people read it. I love to write in my free time. It is a good way for me to get any frustration out, or escape reality for a little while. When you write, you can make anything happen, and thats what I love. There are no rules as to what you have to do. I could make a magical world of faries and mermaids if thats what I wanted to write about.

I really do love writing. My Grandpa is a very strong writer, and he has always endorsed writing and reading in my life. Reading and writing have been some of my favorite things to do since I was in middle school. There was even a time in my life when I wanted to be an author, if you can believe that. Everyone has their own reasons why they write. I really cant just choose one reason why I do it. I just do. I just enjoy writing! For me, I feel like I am leaving my thoughts behind for someone else to find one day, after I am gone. I think that is kind of how my Grandpa sees it as well. He talks a lot about how he wants to be rememberd when he is gone. He has written a memoir of his life that he gave to each of his kids and some of the grandchildren. That is something that I think is really cool. I would love to do that and be remembered for something like that. This sounds so corny but it is really hard to explain why you do something that you have no idea how to explain!

I guess, what I am trying to say is that I write because I can and I like it. I dont think you have to be a fantastic writer to write. I am not, but that doesn't change the fact that I like it. In closing, I love writing and I always will. I'm glad I took this class and got the opportunity to write about things I actually cared about.



Multigenre Project Final

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-3w4hns9iyca0hPU3ZOenI1MDg/edit?usp=sharing

Article Response Six: Plagiarism

 In todays day and age, writing a research paper is all to easy. We type our topic into Google and look t the first three results that come up and there we go. Our paper is done. Sometimes it is hard to re word information you find on the internet and copying and pasting is such an easier alternative. And we all know it's wrong but who is going to know? I have never had a teacher (until now) who actually checked to see if our papers were copied from an online source. I know there are people out there who think "Hey, If I take this paragraph from a website online, change two words and site it, Im okay." But that is not okay. It's lying. You are taking credit for something you didnt do. I know I wouldnt like to have someone else say they wrote my paper when they only copied and pasted it. Plagiarism is not really focused on in school, they tell you it is wrong and move on. As said in the article,

"It is a disconnect that is growing in the Internet age as concepts of intellectual property, copyright and originality are under assault in the unbridled exchange of online information, say educators who study plagiarism."

 It is all to easy for a student to take words from a page online and use them as their own even though they should not. I know plagiarism is wrong and allthough when I do write a paper, some words from the article get thrown into it, I know that I cannot take a whole sentence or article and use it as my own.

Multigenre Example Response

One of the multigenre posts that really stuck out ot me was the one titled: From The Voice Within. This was a multigenre project on the book "Speak." It is mostly centered on Rape. This one was just really interesting and sad! The project is mostly made up of poems. I think the poems are the transistional pieces because they are all done in the same form. There is a piece entitled "RAPE" and It is done in an expository/ research paper way. It is deffinatly the one that she used a lot of research on. It uses facts about statistics about rape and how often it happens. There are some journal entries and notes to people that the author used her creative license on. The transitions are effective I think because they go through the emotions that someone who is a victim of rape would go though like anger. I certianly learned new information about the statistics of sexual assult like that someone is raped every two and a half minutes in the USA. The formating is different because the poems are on pictures... I dont think that made since. But the poems have images behind them. I liked the idea of using poems as transistional pieces. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I was trying to skim it and ended up reading every line and word. I loved how passionate she was about it and I plan on reading this book now.

Article Response Five

*The Secret to Being Memorable and Persuasived

Joe Romms article "The Secrets of Being Memorable and Persuasive" is about how you should speak or write if you wish to be remembered. You have to have launguage intelligence. I agree with Joe. We all have those songs that get stuck in our heads and we can't get them out! I know that his example of "Call Me Maybe" was stuck in my head for months. A catchy tune with alliteration or a rhyming metaphore can become engraved in our brains so easily.

" Last summer’s monster hit “Call me maybe” has one of the cleverest, hardest-to-get-out-of-your-head hooks you can squeeze into three words, “Call me maybe.”  The words “me” and “maybe” have both rhyme and alliteration."

I really liked this article because it useed examples that I knew and could relate to, such as "Call Me Maybe." I thought the intro was funny when Shakespeare and Lady GaGa were compared. Two people so different, and from wildly different times are being compared! I thought that was hilarious. I think this information might be helpful next time I'm trying to write a poem or a catchy pop song. I think that this is a good skill to have. To be able to talk to a crowd and have them have a line of your speech caught in your head for weeks would be amazing. I liked this article. It was interesting.

Article Response Four

*Dave Barry on College*

I actually really liked this weeks article. It was a lot easier to read then the ones we read last week and the week before. The author of this piece has a different purpose for this article then the others we have read. The articles we rad previously, the authors mostly seemed like they were trying to infrom us about grammar and not have to much fun with it. This author made it more of a point to entertain us and make us laugh. I loved the part about the English major because that is one of the majors I have thought about for myself.

"Your professor, who is sick to death of reading papers and never liked Moby-Dick anyway, will think you are enormously creative. If you can regularly come up with lunatic interpretations of simple stories, you should major in English."

This was by far my favorite paragraph because it is very true. I have had an English teacher in the past who would have us read a paper about dogs and then tell us that the paper was not about dogs but infact about the Scandanavian Government! So, that paragraph was by far my favorite. I liked the whole article and enjoyed it a lot. I would much rather read articles like that in class instead of the ones about all the "bogus grammar rules."