Final Reflection.

I can't believe this will be the final blog entry of this quarter. Looking back at my first blog entry

As a writer, I always write with some kind of structure. Having a good idea on what I am going to write gets me thinking. I use my ideas and put that into my work.

I can say this class really help me improve who I am as writer. It helped me use other methods of self expression and interpret identities of a website. This class has helped me strengthened my arguments and help analyze evidence and use it more effectively in my writing. I'm glad I had this class, my first quarter because it definitely helped me grow.

SLO Reflection Two.

Comparing my writing before to my writing now, I notice that many things have changed. This course has allowed me to have a deeper thought on the main argument and instill some of that in my writing. I have never written about identity, so it was interesting analyzing a blog and doing something new. I feel like since I'm in college, my writing and has improved and I have been more explicit with my ideas than I usually am. I am finding more additional knowledge that I can use for evidence and I think it has helped my papers. In the long run, I think this class has bettered my writing, and that's what I was hoping for at the beginning of the quarter.

SLO Reflection One.

I can honestly say this course has helped me become a better reader and researcher. The days went by so quickly but I know what I have learned will be beneficial in my college years to come. All in one quarter, I have learned to use my readings to the furthest extent. This course has taught me how to analyze texts more throughly and grabs key points that could help me get a better understanding. We read two different books and countless articles, and had assignments like creating a precis or the annotate bibliography, which gave me another aid to interpret the material we were discussing. Before this class, I have never used a database to find my resources. I would either find an online source by probably finding it on google, or using a book I looked for in the library, or use our reading to back up my argument. I feel lucky I learned how to use tools like WorldCat early on in the year because I can make use of it for classes to come and they are such easy resources that you can easily attain. Reading or researching may not be my forte, but I can certainly say this quarter has given me a good foundation to my reading and researching in the future ahead of me and I can only keep improving from what I've attained from having this class.

Revision.

Revision is a useful process, where you can take your writing to another level. Either you or another individual can help correct or edit your paper, and it gives you a chance to reconstruct or create new thoughts that you can build on to make your argument stronger. It gives you a chance to focus on the areas you need to improve on.

Essay State.

Well, I chose Option Two for my second essay. Like the first essay, I chose a blog that was fashion focused just because I really like topic and I really like the layout of most of the blogs, they are visually appetizing. I talked about social language and tied it with my thesis of how "blogging has altered the forms of conveying oneself, adding another form of writing providing the author a different method of expression," and tried to find identity in the blog, analyzing it almost the same way as West did but it's definitely still in its draft stage. I'm having trouble with the argument of the essay, it's hard for me to not state the same stuff in my last essay because the blogs are similar and I feel like my thoughts are hard to grasp. Feedback would be nice (:

Essay Plan.

Right now, I have picked prompt two for this second essay. I'm having trouble finding a blog to write about but I wanna keep looking at a similar site like the one I used for the first essay, but maybe a different closely related topic because it really interests me. I plan to analyze the blog I choose and integrate West's article in my essay including her idea about "social language," and try to do maybe a similar study to hers. I haven't started writing, but I will soon and I will also be looking for a different source that will be better fitted for my essay because the one I chose does not fit too well.

Practice Annotated Bibliography.

Luehmann’s identifies how blogging can assists reformed-minded teachers to develop a better understanding on improving their curriculum. An analysis is done on classroom blogs and how it might influence their outcome of the teacher’s specific own learning goals. Luehmann incorporates other experts in the field of critical discourse analysis, especially Gee, to prove her ideas on social networking technologies. Her article demonstrates the effects and benefits of blogging in a course and how it gives opportunities to educators to increase the interaction between their students and themselves, supporting the learning in a classroom and how they can better understand their learning ability. Luehman’s research is a similar study that is closely related to my essay prompt, and would be a useful resource.

Applying West's Article.

Reading Kathleen West's article reminded me a whole lot of our own class. It was an interesting analysis that she conducted on her own students, allowing her to examine the social languages in each blog. Her study focused on the idea of "social language" and how it exhibited their identities, so I think I may define the term and integrate it towards my paper. I picked option two because I think I can write a better paper with the prompt and it might lead me to conduct my own little analysis like West's towards a new blog that fits my liking.

Kathleen West.

When reading West's article, I found it very intriguing. She conducted an analysis on three students in her 11th grade literature class examining the"levels of social organization”: situational, institutional, and societal," (West589) from each of their blogs and how it might influence their responses from their readings in the class. She talks about how the online world has their own digital language and how each student used a language that they were familiar with to express their thoughts that was outside the normal curriculum realm. West noticed how the students used "other discourses to generate new ideas about literature and new ways of communicating their ideas to their peers." (West597). It was interesting how she used blogs for her assignments because she learned more about her students, as well as it was enjoyable and allowed West to examine the social languages that helped grasped the identities the students were portraying through their blogs.

Writing Process.

When writing essay one, I learned things about myself that I didn't even realize. For some reason, I can never do homework or write at home unless it's silent or I'm really focused because I can easily get distracted. I like to work in an environment that is sort of quiet like the library or Starbucks but I like playing some music as I write. I always get something to drink or munch on when I'm doing my work, it makes me feel comfortable, as well as being around people. That's everything I basically did to get me started on the essay. When I first started my essay, I went online and just looked at the blog and clicked on links, just exploring the site. After that I started to make a web and writing everything I could think of that related to each paragraph and made a small outline to get my ideas straight. Then I just started writing, once a draft was formed I just read it over and over again and tweaked things that I didn't like or add something I thought of on the spot that could make it sound better. I think the hardest part was understanding what identity really was, because I couldn't really understand how to find it. After our group conference, I think I got a more clearer idea so that really helped me. I like to learn from I think with all my papers I do the same method and thinking about this as given me a better idea of how I work.

Essay One.

When first getting the essay one, it was a stressful processes trying to find a good fashion blog that I could try to find identity. I was thrilled when I found Fashionista.com because it had elements that I could look at to write a good essay. I think the whole writing process was kinda stressful for me at first. I have never written an essay on identity, and I was confused on what identity really was. As I started looking further in the blog, it became easier finding a clear identity but it was still a little difficult to get it on paper. I thought my essay was alright, it was an stressful week and I think I could have added more evidence and examples from the book and worded things a lot differently.

They Say, I Say.

After reading the book "They Say, I Say," it made me realize many things I can change in my writing. I think the book is a good tool for the basis of writing a paper, and what you can do to get your voice out. The book kinda focuses on how you can connect someone else's words with your own ideas. I think for my paper, I need to state my ideas in response to others and focus on backing up my argument with facts because I think it can strength my paper overall.

Presentation.

Well I think my first ever presentation in college went okay. I was kind of nervous to begin with, so the combination of my nerves plus having more visuals than writing in my slides caused me to speed through my powerpoint when I didn't mean too. Next time, I wanna go at a more reasonable pace so people can relate my pictures to my slides as well as talk and point them out so the audience can get a sense of what I'm trying to explain to them. Overall, besides me breezing through the slides with the visuals, I think I spoke at a tone where everyone could here me and I got out what I wanted to say about my blogger's identity and showed how updating was a key point. I worked really hard on making my powerpoint visually appealing, still relating to my site, so I think that was a positive and a good connection to everything.

Reading.

“People like participating in the media. We like contributing and sharing our ideas, and we are unlikely to stop now that we have the technology to allow it” (Rettberg155).

I was commenting on one of my group member's post and I saw that she posted this passage from the book. I found that this section could really work well in my second paragraph about the updating community because I think it helps shows how the fashion blog's information and posts is presented to the followers in different forms of technology and how easy it is for a follower to contribute to the site.

Changes.

After the writing conference I had with my group on Thursday, it really helped me get a better understanding of the identity my blog was portraying. For my essay, I think I will drop my last paragraph about fashion gossip, and relate it to updating and people who are fashion forward. I want to revise some of my other paragraphs and connect each one to how the blog and fashion updates because aI think that was one of strongest ideas brought up to me during our conference.

Writing and Research.

Searching the internet for a fashion blog was pretty difficult when I first started. Though all of the sites I stumbled upon showed amazing fashion, the majority of the blogs I had reviewed posted more photographs with very little writing and I found it hard to really analyze them. I was thrilled when I discovered fashionista.com because it gave me more information to study as well as giving me a good sense of how the site runs. This blog is great at showing the many aspects of the fashion industry, but my biggest concern is having trouble capturing identity through the blog because it is group owned. Since there are numerous members running the site, I feel like I will have trouble finding a clear focus and I won't be able to write a strong paper. I plan on looking at the site again tonight, but I think the research I have collected so far is steering me in the right direction.

Reading.

When reading through the book, this passage in chapter three that really stood out to me.

"In some ways, this automated diarying highlights the ways that self-documentation has always been both incidental and delberate. Before digital cameras, people often kept their never-sorted photos in shoeboxes, along with other paraphernalia of their daily lives: tickets from trips they'd taken or shows the'd been to, cuttings from newspapers and so on. Only some of these would make it into photo albums and scrapbooks or be written about in diaries. Today's technology can write a story automatically from all theses scraps of information about ourselves. Whether or not we want our stories told like this is another matter. (Rettberg82)

I think this passage is showing that blogging has revolutionized the way we share the moments in our lives we have experienced. Before technology has taken over the world, people would tell their stories and save memorabilia to help remember that memory. Now, people can show and share moments with each other with a click of a mouse, instantly displaing photos or blog entries without even talking or explaining every detail. This passage really interested me when I first read it and made me think about how technology has changed life over time. Technology has been an amazing thing to our world but now with modern technology, our generation has kept our interactions online and sometimes our contact with other people is just strictly using the internet.As much as I love technology, sharing memories going the old fashion way never hurts.

Interests.

Getting to know me, you would most likely find out that I love fashion, photography, beauty and music. Everyday I look at two photo blogs on fashion and photography because the topics really interest me. If I had to study a blog, it would probably be focused on entertainment because it seems to connects best with all of my favorite things and I like how the entertainment world is always changing. I would like to learn how to use research to make my writing stronger.

Who I am as a Writer?

As a writer, I always write with some kind of structure. Having a good idea on what I am going to write gets me thinking. I use my ideas and put that into my work.