blog
Three posts from this page will be included in my final assignments as informal assignments.
My digital portfolio would say I am still a beginner writer. I make many mistakes about grammar or format. The contents are not strong enough. However, at the same time, it would also say I have worked hard and improved.
My digital portfolio is the evidence of what and how I have worked on this class. One of the most important things is I didn’t miss any blog post and did most of the bonus blogs. I have written constantly, which made me get used to writing and feel more comfortable about writing. Another thing is that I have revised my drafts again and again. You can see how much I have made revisions on them after learning new things in class or getting feedbacks by teacher or class in my web page. As a result, I have come to write much better. At first, I used to write whatever I came up with, but now, I have learned to focus on the purpose and main theme. Also I have learned to use different modes and tones according to the purpose. That helps me create stronger tests. You will see my progress in my digital portfolio.
0 Comments
As I am a non-English native speaker, this class has been the most tough class. Thus, most of my times for study has been devoted to the writings of this class. And I think I have improved a lot as a writer through this semester.
I have learned a lot of things from the blog posts that I have posted at least two per week. Most importantly, I don’t hesitate to write as much as I did. I was not confident with my writing and I didn’t like to write at first. It took me too long and I couldn’t come up with the ideas. However, as I write such many blog posts, I have gotten used to write. Now it doesn’t take that long and is not a very hard task to write a blog post. In addition to that, I have learned how to write. The most important point I have learned is to stay on my focus. It seemed easy and obvious, but it was actually a difficult thing and very important. I learned to write my topic, what I want to say, on the paper before start writing so that it will always remind me of the topic. Also, thinking about rhetorical modes while writing helped me a lot. Using different modes according to the purpose of the writings and combining some kinds of modes in a writing helped me strengthen my essays. Another thing I have learned is to “Think On Paper”. I didn’t think it would work before I tried this way. However, when I couldn’t come up with the idea, I started to write that I don’t know what to write. And I kept writing what I know and think even if it was not what I have to write in the essay. (→Academic Mindsets Assignment Writing Process Reflection) Then I naturally get to the topic I would write. Though I changed the focus of the argument when I revised the assignment, it helped me start writing and finding the direction of the argument. Thorough this semester in this class, I have learned a lot as a writer. The skills I have learned will help me as a college student even after finishing this course. I have written some drafts of the Hiraeth Assignment, but I am still working on it. I struggle with “showing” the story and how to put “longing” in the story. The Tuesday’s class about how we organize the essay, for example, using some symbols or conflict was a big help for me. And the Thursday’s presentation of the Hiraeth Assignment also worked for me. I could get feedbacks from the people who don’t know the scene and the topic at all. The thing I asked them was if I was showing enough or not yet.
I was not sure if people can imagine the scenes since it was about the thing which is not familiar with for most people, so I asked the group about it. The group members told that it was easy to imagine the scene. Thus, I decided to keep using some descriptions that I have used in the draft. Also they told me that I needed to express more “longing” and why I long the “home”. The draft I presented was the one I wrote before Tuesday’s class, so I knew that I didn’t have enough description about it. Then Mr. Mangini came and asked if we could tell what was our home, what was the longing, and why we could not return. Which helped me with think about how to express the longing. I tried to express my longing by using symbols and conflict. I miss my teammates in Japan and I cannot return because I am too far away now and also I am not their teammate anymore. And I am in the United States, where is this far from my home, because I chose to chase my dream, to learn about other cultures and perspectives. Thus I tried to symbolize Japan, my home, by dojo, the place we do kendo, and the world, my dream, by the broad sky. Also I tried to express the comfort and the pressure or the tension by taking off and putting on the shoes. I don’t if it works, so I look forward to get the feedback and revise it. Also, I am going to try multimodal project too by using some photos or the videos. Having spent half of the semester, I am more confident about my writing than the beginning of the semester even though I still can’t write exactly what I want to write.
I posted all the blogs and almost all the bonus blog. Because of that, I am less nervous about writing. At the beginning of the class, I didn’t like writing and didn’t want to write because I thought I was not good at writing at all, and I spent quite long time to write one post. However, as I wrote 13 blog posts and some bonus blogs, I came to be able to write without stopping, and ceased to feel like I don’t want to write. Writing is not a hard work that it used to be anymore. In addition, thinking about main idea has made it easier for me to wrote. At first, I just wrote about the topic, but I didn’t know what I really wanted to write. However, as I presented my writing in front of the classmates and got some feedback, I learned that I have to be sure what I want to tell the reader through my writing. Thus, now I try to think about the main topic before I start writing, which makes it easier for me to stay focus on it. Also, by reflecting after each assignment, I could find the better writing process for me. I found that I can do better when I work in the school library than in my bed room, that working alone first is good for me to think about my own opinion, and that writing ideas on paper before start writing is a good way to organize my thoughts. For the next half of the semester, I am going to keep posting all the blogs including bonus blogs, focusing on the main topic, and following the process that I found is good for me. In addition to that, I hope to learn details of writing, keep improving my writing process, and be a better writer. (340 words) Same as the academic mindsets assignment, I worked alone on the film-based assignment at first. I think it worked this time too. I could think about the problem and the solution with my own view.
This assignment was similar to the last one for both of them were about education and I had to write opinions toward problems and solutions. Thus, the hardest part with this assignment for me was having my own opinion, too. I worked on it following the writing process that I made when I wrote academic mindsets assignment reflection. I worked in the library, I used paper to think about my view, I tried to stay focus on what I wanted to write; the problem is that they are allowed to live without working, I read three times to make sure it was easy to understand, I rewrite the parts that I thought was weird, and I had it checked by my native friend (I couldn’t have it checked by my tutor this time, but I am going to do so in this week). Most of the part I used the same process as the last one, but I used another way of thinking. First I chose the bad things the son does in the film, such as hitting others with weapons and being rude at the job interviews. Then, I tried to trace the roots of them. For example, I thought they hit each other because they can’t think well about how others feel, that is because they lack the interaction with other people, and to have the interaction, they need to get jobs. The good thing was I could use the reflection of the last assignment. I think the style that I used last time worked for me at most of the part, so I worked on this assignment in the same process. Also that I found another way of thinking was good, too. The bad this was I couldn’t have it checked by the tutor, so that I couldn’t discuss this opinion. Thus, I am going to see her this week and write draft #2 after the discussion. I won’t revise the processes this time. I am going to keep following the process that I made last time. (375 words) I wrote this essay by myself at first, and after finish it, I had it checked by my tutor. Because I worked by myself, I could think about my own opinion. It is hard for me to have my own opinion since I have never asked to state/write about it before. When I talk with other people about their opinion, I sometimes unconsciously take their opinion as mine. Thus, it worked for me to take my time alone and think about what I think. Also, it was good to have it checked by the tutor because I could find the weak point of my opinion and find the answer to it.
As I wrote above, having my own opinion was the most difficult part for me and to overcome, I spent some time alone and think about it. Also, I used paper to think about it. At first I tried to start the essay, but I didn’t know what to write, so I took a paper and write whatever came in my mind. I didn’t think it would work, but it was a good approach to organize my thinking. I worked this project in library after my classes, same as when I did the Hiraeth assignment, which was good. However, I couldn’t take enough time to reread and rewrite the essay since I took too much time on thinking. Thus, I need to be able to think in shorter time and have more time to think about the writing itself next time. I chose this topic because I thought both of the two authors insisted that we needed to change the educational environment and the differences of their claims were what we had to change, and Kohn doesn’t contradict growth mindset itself. Thus, I thought about my opinion toward what we need to change, and I finally got to the answer what we have to change is adults’ attitude toward children or students, not the educational system. My new writing process especially when writing about my opinion is:
(400 words) It is messy and have a lot of mistakes but this is the paper I wrote to think about my opinion. I worked on most part of the writing by myself, but when I write the specific scenes, I wrote this talking with my teammates. I think it worked for me. Talking with them reminds me clearly of the days and the feelings I used to feel while I was practicing with them. Also, I sometimes talked with my host mother to determine which words or phrase to use to show the scene of different culture in English. The most difficult part for me was to tell the feelings or to show the scenes that are not familiar with the audience. This is a story when I was in my country and the values or the way of thinking is different, so there are no phrases to express some feelings or ideas. To overcome this, as I write before, I talked with my host mother. I managed to explain the idea and she gave me some advices to express them better. It helped me a lot, but I think I have to make it easier to understand by putting more feelings or conversations. Also it was hard to reduce the amount of the writing. I had to choose the parts which I needed to express the hiraeth, but the focus easily got off and I ended up choosing the part I just liked. So I have to think about it again. I started this project at the day it assigned and finished in two days, but I completely changed it after the next class and finished in four days. I believe that it was good that I took more time to write the second one. After some while, the writing I had written sometimes seemed strange, so I fixed it. And I did this project in library after the classes I had, which I think was good too. I was rarely destructed by anyone and I wouldn’t be sleepy. The reason why I chose this Hiraeth is this is the days I miss the most and used to feel comfortable. I will adapt/revise my writing process for the future revision of the Hiraeth revision by following this new six writing process.
(415 words) |
Katsuki Iio
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1997. Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|