THLOG FROM THE FROG

Ok so I'm basically just going to rant about anything that related to Writing 2 this quarter and I hope that will suffice for the "what I learned..." part of the prompt for these Thlogs.

Well I have to say  this was the most challenging course I had this quarter and I have definitely, at points, had difficulty keeping up with the class... (Mostly because Eagles fans are far from interesting. Just kid... Weeeeeeell. Maybe just your cause at least.) I can honestly say that this class has allowed me to walk out a new man, an 18 years old but kid at heart.

Well I have to say I have learned so much from this quarter (yeah I hope you know I have learned all about moves, conventions, genre, etc.). I have learned from the weirdest of things. From your emails where you type words certain ways to add your voice into writing. For example instead of writing well I wrote weeeeeeeell because one e in opposed to 10 e's is a big difference.

I can honestly say that this class completely changed my mind about writing and I want to thank you, Zack, for doing that. The structure of the class made it to where I could free-write to complete activities and not always have to use second order thinking. This really allowed me to better organize my ideas when writing my essays by knowing consciously that I will use two different forms of thinking to complete an essay.

Overall, these are just a fraction of the things I learned because there was so  much! Thanks for everything Zack. I'll definitely come back and blog every time the Cowboys beat the eagles (btw this is a move I made in not capitalizing the e in eagles haha).

Thanks and goodbye... Z.

number 9

As Writing 2 comes close to its end it was only right that we did what we should have done at the beginning… let me teach the class.

Sike, I wish.

With a short week we had our presentations on our only day of class in Writing 2 but I can say I learned. This week’s presentations were really helpful because they were able to refresh my mind on different topics like citations, works cited, sentence structure, FANBOYS, and other topics. Some of these topics were review but for a lot of topics I learned something new. One rule that I found especially weird and never had I seen before was the use of semicolons in sentences that list cities like this: Santa Barbara, California; Miami, Florida; and Austin, Texas.

I not only learned about the topics with each presentation but the presentation itself was a lesson. Seeing others present only allowed me to see what I could have included in my presentation to make it more effective. I learned that even the smallest of details matter when performing. Some details that I learned to pay better attention to in the future are making sure I work more collectively in a group, making sure I do a better job at understanding what entertains my audience, and being more original in the format of the presentation.

Overall, the presentations were very helpful and entertaining! I loved this activity.

T

So the week of the final WP? What?! Did the day finally come?
Well, this week was definitely a stressful one and rightly so because like the Zack said "the WP3 will be the hardest". So for my WP3 what made it the most difficult was reading and making sure I was answering the prompt. For my previous WP, I was not as happy with my grade and a big portion of that seemed to be due to not following the directions completely so for this WP I had to make sure I was. First I started knowing what I was going to do with a YouTube video and honestly I did it because I thought it would be a new challenge that could be fun. However, I ended up finishing the whole video before I found the translations I made from the scholarly article to the YouTube video and so what I learned to do was to make a better outline for my projects with specific answers to all parts of the prompt in the outline before I even start creating a project. Another thing I did notice with this project was that we definitely had to focus on conventions and moves more importantly as I focused on creating a whole new genre that would have to at least fit some of the "probably expectations" the audience has.
Overall, I had a great time creating this project and learned a lot!

log(Th)dx

This week in class we were preparing for the WP3 and so like always we first do our PB3a. In our PB3a, we were supposed to give a plan for what we would do for our WP3 and I came up with the topic relationships and how they have changed over time. I am really excited to work on this project and as I am creating my project I see how you, as you once said, "this project will need to you to focus on conventions and/or moves in great detail with this project as it is definitely necessary.
Overall in class on Monday, I really enjoy the activities and free writes that you have us do to better understand WP3 because before that I was very confused with what the project need us to do. Also, I am very excited to do my project now after the feedback we got on our blogs from both Zack and other classmates. They were a great help in ultimately deciding what I would do while still following the prompt. Time to finish this project and learn as I create my final piece!

Pb3A- "MOM! GIRLS! PROM!"

Although my mother has absolutely nothing to do with WP3 or Writing 2 in general she would always tell me, “The more freedom I give you the more you get in trouble!” This of course was not true but I believe the quote better applies to Writing 2 and that is because with the more freedom I get in choosing a topic the more I struggle to come up with a topic I am familiar with that I will enjoy. However, for my WP3a I came across the article CHANGES OVER TIME IN TEENAGE SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS: COMPARING THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1950, 1975, AND 2000 and after being exposed to the large amounts of articles and videos on teenage relationships I felt that I really would like to work with the conventions of different genres related to this topic.

            For my WP3 I will be choosing option 1 in which I will use this article and focus on the results of the study (the changes over time between sexual relationships) and transform them into genres for both a younger and older audience. For the older audience I was thinking of a couple options (1) to make a magazine article that could be found in a magazine like Parenthood and explain the proper steps for parents on how to give their child the “sex talk” with the ever increasing rates of teenage sex or (2) a conversation through text messaging between the parents and their son or daughter with prom approaching. The purpose of this conversation would be for the son to convince his parent’s that times have changed since they went to Prom (in 1975 one of the years studied in the scholarly article) and so he wants an extended curfew and other liberties that did not exist before.

            For the younger audience I also have a couple options that I would enjoy constructing. The first would be a letter in which I will pretend to be a teenage boy around the age of 16 and his happy anniversary letter to his girlfriend. This will be a handwritten letter meant to go along with the present that the boyfriend got the girlfriend and it will use both the conventions of a normal letter and also include the cheesy, corny social media posts that teenagers tend to post on their special days. Another options would be to make a Youtube video that teaches teenage boys how to get girls (which I am worried about considering my video editing skills and considering the fact that to this day I still do not know girls). If I stick with this option, the video will focus on using the conventions of a more satirical Youtube “how to” videos rather than a serious one to better appeal to the audience of teenage boys.

            I have yet to make a choice for which I will choose because I would like to study each new genre deeper in order to get a feel of what conventions would better fit my writing style. Overall, I’m excited for this assignment.

Thlognight

Writing 2 was definitely one big headache too and no it was not because Zach talked smack on the Cowboys all week (the clearly superior team and winner of tomorrow's game) but I definitely struggled writing my WP2. I think my biggest problem was finding out exactly what form I would like to use for my essay, whether I would compare one thing in all three essays or whether I wanted to pick the most important parts of each article to analyze. Ultimately, I chose finding common conventions of each essay and contrasting them according to their discipline Another unique writing style that I decided to use I found casually surfing the web and that was using humor in the first and last paragraphs of my WP2 which i used as a tactic to involve the reader deeper into the paper (which I guess I could call one of my moves too).
Overall, I feel like this week was very stressful; however, I learned a lot about the writing style that I would like to carry and began testing out with a WP2, an assignment I ultimately was very proud of!

the internets

• What are some "moves" you see in these videos? 

A list of things i noted from these videos were:

-very detailed directions

-the painter clears up any confusion

-acknowledges that we are beginners with enough information about painting 

-gives context(like in evergreens) like when he says there are 500 branches in an evergreen

-spoke in a simple language (not painter vocabularly)

-

• How do these artists describe what they’re doing?  What do the artists refer to while they describe their work?  What do they talk about?  What do they direct our attention towards? They take every step of the painting process for their trees and how exactly they come to their final product. Often times, the painter likes to point out (like in the first video) that the painting might look ugly as you draw it; however, by the end of the drawing the different moves combined will make up the picture. 
• How would you characterize each artist's style, and what impact does their style have on you (a viewer/audience member)?  How have these artists chosen to portray their subject matter?  Each artist has their own unique way of not only drawing the trees but, for example, in the last video how they interpret the tree on to their canvas. So, I was able to relate with certain artists and not others. Besides that, the artists each carried a very similar tone while explaining what they were going to draw. The style's of the artists, besides being unique from each other, can vary from very illusional to structured full of close detail. The simple language that the artist uses and often very simple forms of painting too make it easy as the audience to follow. However, I also have a unique style when drawing so I felt like I connected more with Rob Ross who often takes a very traditional way of drawing. 

six. point. two.

In the end, my WP2 paper I was super satisfied with! I started with was probably my worst first draft I have ever written and almost completely modified it for the better. What I was happiest with was my introduction and conclusion in which I was able to use a little bit of my own voice to introduce the topic. I also liked the transition in tone that I began to use as soon as I began comparing and contrasting each of the articles!

The comment that I found to be more helpful was to decide on one set structure that I could carry when analyzing the articles. I interpreted that as choose one thing to compare and then analyze it in all three using a larger amount of  paragraphs (second piece of advice). Overall, however, I as I read other people’s papers got some ideas of what conventions i could use for my paper.

thlogé

This week’s main objective was to understand a little more about WP2. However, this week was the first week where I was not happy with something in class and it was Uncle Zach making a prediction that could be very misleading. He claimed, “The Eagles will beat the Cowboys this Sunday”. This statement however is (1) not true (2) was a great example to use in helping us understand how many sources we need and where are sources could come from. Other then that, we worked on PB2B and in that assignment I learned just how specific these moves can be in an essay as I chose to analyze a document on Teenage Dating. A couple moves that I noted from the article were bulletin points, titles, and other moves that affected the credibility of the essay. Altogether, these moves were important in establishing a personality to the author and allowed for a more effective read by the reader.

            This last Wednesday I believed we had a very informational day in class even though we took a little break from big concepts and focused on brackets, “says”, and writing an essay. The concept I was probably most interested in was the commenting on an essay procedure, which helps “keep you sane”. I thought that would be helpful for me not only keep me sane from writing classes (jk btw) but by organizing my ideas more effectively.  It was also helpful to review words that could replace “say” as you become a more scholarly writer and also learn that Wikipedia is helpful in finding context in a subject!

            All in all, this week was a good writing week in Phelps 1525.

Moveeeee out for PB2B!

Moves, which might be a surprise, do not only exist in sports but in academic settings as well. Whether on the writing or reading end of a piece of literature, moves can help develop writing skills that best fit one’s style of writing or be analyzed to figure out how these moves were effective in producing an effective piece. In essence, the importance of moves lies on the ability to analyze them and make them your own. In They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst these authors have been able to show some common moves that follow similar structures and how they each have a unique purpose that ranges from simply becoming more credible to creating an informal tone because they want the reader to feel more comfortable reading the article. The moves are not limited to simply academic articles but are found in a wide range of pieces including the article “When To Let Your Teenager Start Dating”.

In Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk there is an enormous amount of moves similar to those of They Say, I Say including these:

1.     “As a result, I decided to make this essay a mix of personal anecdotes, examples, and voices from teachers of writing” (Voice Marker)

2.     “In other words, knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, whether that goal be getting a job” (Explaining quotes)

3.     “You are already probably familiar…” (Standard Views)

4.     “Devitt argues that ‘people do not label a particular story as a joke solely because of formal features but rather because of their perception of the rhetorical action that is occurring’” (X argues)

5.     “I will admit that the word genre...” (Voice Markers)

            To prove that moves could be found in almost any piece of literature and not just in academic pieces like Navigating Genres, the article “When To Let Your Teenager Start Dating” is dissected for some of its more effective moves. This informational article is meant to provide help for parents who are looking for advice in the field of teenage dating which could be some of the hardest times for a parent. In return, the author uses his moves to make his article the most clear and effective.

One move that I like to call “section 5” is used by the author to get into specific types of dating and so the article has five different sections all responsible for different levels of dating. The use of this is important to note because it makes it clearer for the reader (typically a parent) to read this and understand that there exists different intensities of dating and each should be treated properly. For example, section one is on “group dating” that seems to exist and is recommended for 14 year olds. At a more intense stage of dating, “solo dating” exists too but is recommended by professionals to not start until the age of 16. Altogether this shows how the use of different sections allows for the different recommendations according to the intensity of the dating.

Another move, which I like to call “Calling you out”, exists under the category of “First Heartbreak” which the author in a bold phrase specifically gives directions on how to treat a teenager post- breakup followed by an example of what one can say. The use of this allows the article to be easier to dissect and read so if a parent wants to come back for advice from this essay, the directions will be clear and bold for them to find and treat their child properly with the help of examples. Not only this but it serves as a hands-on section of the article that can appeal to parents because it makes it easier on them too simply follow directions.

The Stereotype- This move would probably be a child favorite. In this move the author acknowledges that most “adults generally take a cynical view of teenage romance… ‘It’s all about sex’” which allows him to connect to the parents by acknowledging some of the common misconceptions of teenage dating exists within the parent community and simply follows by stating that this cynical view can be seen as unhealthy for the relationship between parent and son or daughter. The author’s acknowledgement of common misconceptions and showing some cons to them make this more effective and discourages parents from doing it using almost a scare tactic. 

One of the more satirical moves used I call “The Fake Conclusion” and starts because the author has given the reader (the parents) directions on how to treat their child according to the different intensities of dating, the author chooses to include some of the positive reactions their child could have. For example, the author believes that a child could react to a story (which is recommended telling after a break up for any anyone who has children) by saying “Now I’m thankful that she broke up with me. Because if she (Dad’s ex girlfriend) hadn’t, you’d never have met mother!”. This possible reaction that the author chooses to include could be considered an “ideal reaction” and so parents should find excitement out of this and follow the article’s recommendations making it an effective move.

Last, “The Ultimate Seller” is used by the author to include information stated by a professional, a pediatrician, who recommends to allow the children to be involved in “group dating” because of its effective transition onto “solo dating”. However, the author was very specific in including and possibly even choosing the pediatrician by including that this pediatrician is “the father of two grown children”. This move allows for even more credibility to a professional in this field because he too has gone through the same situations with his children and so parents should feel less nervous about following the author’s recommendations.

            All in all, moves are found in all forms of literature and altogether these moves in a single piece of literature help the reader form their arsenal of moves and the writer help the purpose of the piece.

4 Thlog #

            This week we began learning moves, which will later help us write our WP2. At first I’ll admit having a difficult time answering why these moves were important (maybe because I was hoping we were going to learn about basketball or football moves) but then I did realize that the moves of basketball players might not be THAT much more different than a writer. Essentially, both the basketball player and writer have similar goals in being effective at their respective discipline and so they need to use moves that will help them accomplish this. So as weird as it sounds to say of a writer… a writer too has moves and can be as simple as their word choice and syntax or as complicated as trying to set a certain tone from a paragraph that sets it apart from the others.

            A really cool activity that helped me understand just how easily one can find moves was watching The Rock’s signature move over and over again until the class got so detailed that we realized even the Rock pushing his opponents arm in before he absolutely destroys him (His opponent’s RIGHT arm) was an important move to note in the effectiveness of his overall signature move.

            Overall, this class has continued to help me become a better writer and have enjoyed this routine we have going inside the classroom with the free writes and class discussions.

P.S. I also learned how to use italics more effectively but I just decided to incorporate that in the first paragraph rather than to talk about it.