Going into my first semester of college ever, I was super nervous and didn’t know how I would survive. I thought I would be late all the time because I'm pretty notorious for being late for everything, but I managed to make it to class every week at least 10 minutes early and that's impressive for me. Being in ENG 100 made my first semester a little easier to get by and definitely gave me the tips I need for future classes. I can honestly say I learned more in ENG 100 than in high school. I learned what TPS (Topic, Position, and Support) is when writing a paper along with a Source Sandwich (don’t forget to introduce, quotation and explain kids). I also learned what it’s like to work together and be a team. I met amazing people and if it weren't for my professor, I don’t know that I would be talking to any of them. Creating a website and making it so my personality shows through my blog post was something I really enjoyed the most. I'm not a fan being assigned to read anything, I tend to not even care and just hope for the best. Although that was high school Jen. 22-year-old Jen enjoyed almost every article and short story we had to write a blog post on. My Name is Margaret, What You Don't Know, and Hills Like White Elephants really grabbed my attention when going more into the story and evaluating what the story is actually trying to represent. Had I been in high school, these blog post would be bull shitted the whole way through. My professor really gave me a different perspective on how to look at a story, paper, or article and really give it a good looking into to feel the author's purpose. Writing processes are a big deal in our class, having free write and reading about different processes that several authors have, I took all of that "advice" and tried to put it in affect with how I wrote and revised my papers and blog posts. According to Professor Mangini, you can write any paper "sexy". He's taught me some of the best "ice breakers" that I hope one day I can use with my kids when I become a teacher. I walked into this class with really low confidence that I would be like I was in high school, thankfully my class mates were awesome, my professor is the man, and some days were a little more difficult than others trying to make it through. I couldn’t be more proud of myself that I didn’t cave and drop out because things got a little rocky. I stayed. I couldn’t be more ready to take on the rest of my college career.
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In class, we had to read three different articles on the daily routines of some of the most famous writers, pick our three favorite quotes from each article, and create three of our own. Putting this post together really gave me some insight on how to really get to the nitty gritty of writing a good piece.
Here I have included the articles we read:
I have put nine quotes from three different passages, while adding three of my own quotes. These nine quotes really stuck out to me because I feel like I really relate to the writers when they're explaining how they exactly do what they do to be so successful. Teach Writing as a Process Not Product By: Don Murray Quote 1: "He uses language to reveal the truth to himself so that he can tell it to others. It is an exciting, eventful, evolving process" - Murray 2 Quote 2: "How do you motivate your student to pass through this process, perhaps even pass through it again and again on the same piece of writing? First by shutting up." - Murray 3 Quote 3: "It is the responsibility of the student to explore his own world with his own language, to discover his own meaning" - Murray 4 Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life By: Annie Lamott Quote1: "First I try to breathe, because I'm either sitting there panting like a lapdog or I'm unintentionally making slow asthmatic death rattles. So I sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly." - Lammot 3 Quote 2: "I also remember a story that I know I've told elsewhere but that over and over helps me to get a grip: thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." - Lammot 4 Quote 3: "In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really shitty first drafts" - Lammot 6 The Daily Routines of Great Writers By: Maria Popova Quote 1: "If I don’t have the hour, and start the next day with just some bad pages and nowhere to go, I’m in low spirits. Another thing I need to do, when I’m near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it. That’s one reason I go home to Sacramento to finish things. Somehow the book doesn’t leave you when you’re asleep right next to it. In Sacramento nobody cares if I appear or not. I can just get up and start typing." - Joan Didion Quote 2: "I do pushups and sit-ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not." - Kurt Vonnegut Quote 3: "I write in spurts. I write when I have to because the pressure builds up and I feel enough confidence that something has matured in my head and I can write it down." - Susan Sontag My three quotes: Quote 1: I find myself looking at my cat a lot of the time for inspiration, so if you have a pet, take a gander. You may come up with something. Quote 2: Take a short break and listen to your favorite music artist. I find that music can help get you started if you just can't think of a good topic. Quote 3: Do some jumping jacks, maybe a few yoga poses if you are feeling tired. Grab some water, get the blood flowing and the mind going. |