ENG11BLOG

2001-12-07T05:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, I didn't know I sounded so pessimistic in my journals! In almost every journal, I said something about not liking the prompt, or how mine wasn't good, or how I didn't know how to do the assignment. It seems though, from the beginning to the end, they do seem a little bit more positive because as time went on I had a better idea of what was taking place in class. I also realized from reading my journals that I talked a lot about my writing assignments from other classes like in biology and history. I stated that it was neat to see how my teachers told us to do the same things as my english teacher like taking into consideration the audience. I also talked about how I would much rather do an english paper than a biology or history paper. I also seem to become more positive about my writing throughout my journal.

2001-12-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

My last blogger. How exciting!!! Well anyways, I just finished my introduction for my English portfolio and I am not sure if I did it exactly correct, but we get to go over them tomorrow in class so I will be able to change it if so. I feel that I was extremely redundant because for each piece I talked about how it showed my understanding of the same thing pretty much.

Well, English 11 has gone pretty well this semester. I have never had to write that much for one class so it took a little bit of getting used to, but it turned out to not be that bad. I am not too fond of writing because it is definitely not my best skill so I sure hope that it has improved a little from taking this class. I know my skill of recognizing my audience and targeting my paper towards that audience has improved because I never use to really think about it until we started focusing on it in class. The group evaluations have helped because it is always good to get a second opinion. Also, my teacher gives really good responses when he grades our papers so that will help out a lot when putting my portfolio together and just in general because now I know what I need to work on.

2001-11-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

Writing is so much fun, epecially over Thanksgiving break! Not!!! Well, I did finish my paper last night, which was a big thing for me because I can usually never get work done when I am home, but I knew I had to because I have a final on Monday as well. For our Unit three project we were suppose to use two sources that argue or have opposing thoughts on a certain issue in our prospective major. My prospective major is psychology so I chose to tackle the topic of animals used in scientific research. I am not sure if I correctly evaluated my two sources in the way that we were suppose to, but I think it will do. Since my topic is kind of a sensitive topic it was interesting to read people's claims. It was hard though to find sources that weren't just stating their opinion, but who were actually in the field and could reliably write and comment on the subject. I know my paper still needs a lot of work so I am glad it is just our draft due on Monday. I also have some questions relating to the bibliography since my sources are articles within books, but I am sure I can get help with it in class.

2001-11-18T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I just finished revising the worst paper I have ever written. I didn't really understand the prompt for feeder 3.2 so I seem to jump around in my paper without ever getting to the point. Before leaving class on Friday I thought I had a better idea of the topic, but today I realized I didn't. I think I might have done it completely wrong, but I don't know how to change it to make it right. It was hard trying to analyze a scholarly journal even though mine didn't contain a lot of jargon, it still was hard to analyze it and write about it. The article was so long if I would have done a complete analysis it would have taken forever and been about 100 pages long. Feeder 3.2 was only suppose to be around three pages so I barely touched on their argument and results, which is what the paper was suppose to mainly include. I really liked the last two units a lot better besides the speech part, but we only have one more paper to write so I am really excited about that!

2001-11-08T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I just finished my intellectual autobiography and boy was it hard. I know it doesn't sound that hard, but writing about myself and my interests was difficult. Since I really don't have a specific love or interest in something it was hard for me to talk about what profession I may want to go in. In my paper I mainly focused on psychology since I do enjoy learning about it. The prompt said to talk about your intellectual interests and although I do alright in school I don't really have an intellectual interests. School is school to me. I feel like I might have strayed away from the prompt a little, but I think it will be okay. My paper doesn't really follow it because I didn't really have any intellectual interests to work with.

Well, this week I finished my last biology lab report. I am so happy I never have to do one of those again! After writing that eleven page report on Tuesday night made me never want to take a science again. It is just so much information you have to include and you have to make sure you get every step and procedure in there. Plus the fact that they grade them really hard. I hope I did okay on it because I need a good grade in there. Eventhough, I am not an English person, I would choose an English paper over a biology report any day!!!

2001-11-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

This week I had to read a book and write an essay on it for history 27. The book was titled A Medieval Life and let me tell you it was as interesting as it sounds. Our teacher gave us some questions that we could try to incorporate into our essay, but she didn't give us an exact prompt or topic. This made it hard reading the book because I didn't know exactly what to look for because I didn't know what my paper was going to be about. We had to argue a certain argument. As I was nearing the end of the book I finally came up with a thesis.

I didn't like having to come up with my own prompt. I like when a teacher gives you an exact prompt because then you have a better feel for what you are suppose to write on. When I wrote my paper I didn't know if I was being too abstract or too specific.

Writing this speech kind of reminded me of writing my speech. I had to come up with an argument and find evidence to support it. For every claim we were supposed state evidence and then comment and elaborate on it. The history paper wasn't that tough, but I am not sure if my argument was a good one and if my evidence supported it thoroughly. When I first began writing it, I felt confident about it, but as I got further into it I began to get a little worried, but I wasn't changing it after all that I had done on it!

2001-10-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Well, my speech is over! It was hard making my paper into a speech. I had to cut and paste so much and end up cutting out a lot of good information due to the time issue. But I think it turned out okay.

I hate lab reports! Yesterday, I just had to work on the procedure outline and it took forever! I am dreading doing the entire lab report this next week. Lab reports are so not fun. It is not creative at all and all you do in it is describe what you did, what you used, and why. It is definitely not one of my favorite types of writing, but I have to do it.

Tonight when I get back to Chapel Hill I have to write a biology paper on a video, but we also have to include a lot of book stuff. I hate papers like this because you are using information right out of the book and it is so hard to paraphrase because it usually says exactly what you want to say so you end up citing everything! I also dislike biology papers because there is no opinion or room for one to include personal feelings. It is all based on boring facts, but I guess it doesn't matter because I am definitely not going into biology!

2001-10-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, Fall Break didn't go as I expected. I had planned to get my speech entirely done and practiced,my two essay outlines for my exam on Tuesday, study for a lab test for Monday, and complete a lab essay but I have figured out it is impossible to get things done at home. I did get one of my history essays outlined and most of my speech written. It is hard to do your work when you have been away from your family for a while and all you want to do when you are home is hang out with them.
I figured out history essays are harder to write than normal English essays because you are mostly using information from other sources and rarely your own opinions and thoughts. It was hard for me to think of creative ways to tell the facts and info rather than just state it. History essays seem rather boring compared to English essays because, at least, in English essays you get to elaborate more on your thoughts and feelings.
Writing my speech took me quite a while. When I know I am going to have to speak about what I am writing in front of people it makes me nervous just thinking about it causing me to question everything I write. All I have done is write most of it out except for my conclusion. I have to write it on note cards and I can't include everything! I know I am going to freak out not having my entire speech in front of me, but hopefully I will do okay. My week is going to be majorly hectic, but once I finish it I am going to try to practice it over and over enough where I will feel really comfortable about it. I know even if I feel comfortable with it I will still be really nervous, but hey, I never claimed to be a public speaker!

2001-10-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, citing sources using the MLA format. Fun, fun, fun. In our feeder 2.2 we had to use four sources (two print& two electronic) to provide support for our argument and create a bibliography. My argument needs a little strengthening. Before when I started writing my feeder 2.2, I got all the way to the second page and realized I have no argument. So, with the help of my teacher and classmate we came up with an argument where I could still use my first paragraph which told exactly what happened September 11th. My argument deals with the fact that the only time the United States unites is in the wake of tragedy. Because of the September 11th attacks there has been an increase in blood donations, church attendance, and patriotism. Although the increases in these are very good, it is sad that it took something so traumatic for Americans to do these. My paper was very weak. I think I have good sources that support my topic, but something is still missing. My argument seems kind of dumb because no one in their right mind would disagree with it.

I am little worried about the speech because I hate speaking in front of people and the fact that we can't use our text really worries me. I am going to be so nervous because when I get nervous I lose my train of thought which will probably happen a lot throughout my speech. I am also worried because I don't know if my argument is one that I can speak 5 minutes on.

2001-10-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

This week I had to write on three issues that are important to me. It was an easy task because there are a lot of issues that are important to me. Unlike others in my class, I wrote about three dorm issues. They are important to me, but become trivial when thinking about the issues affecting our nation right now. My three issues were about my dorm's ant problem, our dirty bathrooms, and the no air-conditioning factor. My paper is really bad because I just wrote like I was telling someone about the problems. When writing other papers I try to incorporate good vocab words and try to make it sound good, but I couldn't seem to do much with this paper. It might have been better if I had written about three issues that I am very, very passionate about. I mean I do care a lot about these issues because they do affect me, but they are a little goofy to write about, but my teacher said "any three issues." Plus, they are different than what a lot of others seemed to have written about. Also, I am not sure if I touched on the ethos, pathos, and logos aspects. Tomorrow I am going to revise the paper, but I don't know exactly what to add or subtract!

2001-09-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

After I finish my biology lab write up, I am about to start on my letter to the editor of The Daily Tarheel for our assignment in class. Yesterday, I read a few of the articles in Friday's paper, but didn't find one to write on from those that I read. I think it will be an easy assignment to do, hopefully, because I will just have to express my thoughts on an issue talked about in the newspaper. But I don't know because I often have a hard time writing period. My words just don't flow. In my group in English class, everyone of them are awesome writers. I would love to be able to write like they do.

The lab write up that I am working on now is pretty easy it just takes a lot of time to do. Our lab classes are almost three hours long. The experiments that we do take up almost that amount of time so you can imagine how long it takes to write what the experiment was about and every single procedure that you did and don't forget the Results and Discussion sections.

As I was reading over the rules for writing lab reports, it talked about how we need to focus on who the audience will be for our report. I thought that was so neat because we had talked about that in English and I would have never thought about focusing on that for a biology lab report, but I guess most writing is a lot alike!

2001-09-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Last night, I stayed up until 2:30am working on my Unit 1 project. I had started a lot earlier, but I just couldn't seem to concentrate on it. I formed a small writer's block. Before I started writing, I looked over my feeder 1.1 and 1.2 because they both related to the topic of my assignment. When I began writing my paper I couldn't seem to come up with any new ideas. I felt like I was writing another paper on the same exact prompt. After writing my first two pages, I glanced back at the prompt and realized that I wasn't really addressing it. I really don't think I ever answered it actually.

After reading some of the papers in English class today, I felt really bad about my paper because I feel that my paper could definitely be a lot better. I had a hard time making the length of my paper 4 to 5 pages. I got to about the half of my fourth page, but couldn't think of anything else to write about. When I did read other's papers, I realized how much other stuff I could have written about my topic.

The paper due today was just the rough draft so atleast I do have time to add things and make changes to my paper. This Unit project counts more, I believe, than the other feeder papers so I really want to do good on it, but I just can't seem to elaborate any more on the topic.

2001-09-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday of this week I had to revise my Feeder 1.2 for class on Wednesday. Due to the tragedy that occured that day, I had a hard time concentrating on my paper. Nothing really seemed important then, especially, not an English paper. I just wanted to talk to my family and watch the News. I felt so bad for those victims and their families and friends. I realized how much they were going through right now and here I was worried about an English paper, but I know we have to move on when things like this happen. I just keep seeing the images of the crashes in my mind and keep hearing the tragic stories of so many families. It just breaks my heart. I didn't even know anyone personally in the crashes, but by the sadness that I feel, you would have thought I did. This whole situation just scares me because I know it could happen again and the next time it could involve my loved ones. But I know all I can do is pray. It is a week later almost and I still keep having small breakdowns, but I guess after something this massive and tragic, it is expected. Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent.
Needless to say, I did end up revising it. I changed a few words and tried to revise boring or "too wordy"
sentences. I kept feeling like I was writing the same thoughts over and over just using different words. Our next assignment is our first project dealing with the same topic and format in a way. Hopefully, I will be able to think of some creative ideas to put in it so it won't sound like my last two feeder papers. But I think by doing those two feeder papers it will help me in writing my project.

The only other things I wrote this week were emails to friends and family, which I would rather write anyday then assigned writing assignments and notes for my other classes. Oh yeah, and I had a test in Biology which I had free answer questions to write for. It was horrible. I think I failed it bad and the sad thing is I have been studying so hard! Harder than I have ever studied before! But I guess thats college, huh?

Until next time....

sentences. Like I said in my last blog, I thought it was difficult to write this paper because I felt has if I was saying the same things just changing the words that I used.

2001-09-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

This week, the only paper assigned to me was my English paper, in which, I had to create a proposal to win a contest to host a weekly radio show at UNC-CH. You had to try to appeal to a certain audience. I had a hard time coming up with something to write about, but eventually I decided on a student hotline for students to get help on all sorts of topics. I know college is a time of change and independence which can lead to stress. This hotline will provide them with professionals who can give advice and student chats with students who have been through these same things.
I thought writing this would be a little bit easier than it was. I got stuck a few times, but doesn't that always happen in writing? I believe I focused a little too much on freshmen than the entire student population. I talked mostly about problems freshmen face and need to elaborate a little bit more on what a student will face throughout their entire stay at college.
In class on Friday, we read our papers aloud to our groups and then they gave us feedback on them. I think this is a good idea because this way we get different opinions on our papers and have a chance to revise them before turning them in for a grade. I am about to revise my paper. I have a few ideas of what I need to add and change, but I am still stuck on a few places.

2001-08-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well, this week my writing has been confined to a freewriting exercise in English class, notes in all of my classes, and emails to friends and families. In the next few weeks I am sure the amount of required writing I have to do will increase and the amount of unrequired writing(emails and such) will
decrease due to my workload from school.
I am not one who generally enjoys writing. I often freeze up and have a hard time putting my thoughts on paper. The freewriting exercise in English was a cool idea, but I think I still thought to much about what I was writing instead of just writing what came to mind. When writing papers and other class assignments I usually try to make everything sound so good that I either get a writer's block or I stray from the topic.
When writing emails I don't have a problem. I write exactly what I would say if I were actually speaking to the person. An email is very informal and you don't get a grade for it! You don't have to be creative or worry about the after effects like when writing a paper for class.
Even though, I don't particularly enjoy writing, I still hope to become a better writer and to be able to express my thoughts more freely on paper. Writing is definitely not one of my better skills. I think if I were to become a better writer then I would probably enjoy it a lot more. Hopefully, by having English 11 this semester my writing skills will become better and I will learn to enjoy it more!