V 2.0

     Well, what a long, strange road it's been since V 1.0 of this topic. I have to be completely honest; I don't think many of my goals were met, despite maintaining a B or better the entire class. I had initially wanted to learn how to organize my thoughts much better. I feel with just the sheer number of assignments that required writing, I have achieved that goal to a certain, unavoidable degree. My structure became much better as the class progressed as well. Again, I attribute that to the number of papers that required one structure or another. I had originally wanted to acquire a much better understanding of MLA style, since I will be transferring in the spring. I knew I was required to have a much broader understanding of the style. This class was the next logical step. Again, I have to say I was a little disappointed. Although each of the (6?) or so essays required MLA format, I continually made one or more errors to the style. This part is ok; I assumed I would make errors. Second part is not so good. I have no idea where I made these mistakes. Now, I know it would be very difficult for a Professor to single out every MLA gaff for each student, I understand that. I would just like to know where I made my mistake so I didn't make it time and time again. I have my handy "The Brief Handbook" which gives me the information, so, all along I assumed everything was fine. I have no idea if it was the Works Cited missing a period somewhere or if it was a major error that needs a lot of attention. I guess that would be my one major gripe is the lack of feedback, because this was not a required class for me, I took it to make myself a better writer for the next level of my education, and I honestly don't feel that I am much better than when I started.




I do think I learned to focus my critical thinking through this class though. Many of the assignments involved looking in-depth into writings and such. I still love to analyze politics, though it has become so depressing that there isn't much to analyze, unless you consider grown educated people yelling at each other material to critically think about. I have begun to look at advertising with a sharper eye as a result of the assignments of this class. I found it to be a fun and challenging class that really tested my time management skills. I was a little disappointed with the lack of feedback on the papers, which are the main point of the class. But, all in all, a B is a B I guess.

The Dreaded Research Paper

We all knew it was coming. Everything we have done was leading us to this point like a lamb to slaughter. It started easy, we were all thinking this was going to be a breeze, then bam! A comprehensive argumentative research paper, diverse sourcing, photo copies of our material and discussing my least favorite book of the entire class. Amazing. Thus is college and the things we do for a grade. I'll be honest; I've erased the notions that I'll be getting an A on this paper. I am shooting for a B and settling for a solid C. I guess that's why you do well in the beginning, on the easy stuff.




To be honest, I'm not too thrilled about our topics. They seem dull if you ask me. RLiT was a boring book in my opinion and it was very hard for me to connect to it, then asking me to compare it to another piece of classic literature is pouring salt in my gaping wounds! But, I'll survive. I have 1 page down, a few sources out of the way and I think I'm moving at a decent pace, although other classes' finals and papers will start to bog my progress quite a bit.



I understand the purpose of the assignment. It's to get us ready for a more in-depth look at classic literature and how to analyze it. Not my favorite topic, but like I said, getting A's and B's is a good thing. I guess I wish we had a choice of which book we wanted to do our paper on. Personally, I totally had a connection with Animal Farm. On the contrary, RLiT was like torture, I just couldn't get into it for the life of me! Nothing against the book, I'm sure some people absolutely loved it; maybe it changed their lives for all I know.



The largest obstacle for me was getting my thesis down. Now, this is usually my problem. Once I start the rest seems to flow. As of today, I do have a thesis and an accompanying page. The sourcing is going slowly I have to say and it isn't from lack of looking. Maybe it's because I have never had to write a paper such as this or I'm just really not that into it, but I'm having a heck of a time! Luckily we still have plenty of time to scratch some semblance of a college level work out!



I guess we’ll just have to see how it progresses from here. Like I said before, I’ve done pretty darn well since the beginning; missing less than 70 points all together (I was lazy and missed an entire group assignment). So getting a C on this paper is something that I have come to peace with. It isn’t because I’m lazy or because I don’t have the drive to push on when the assignments get tough. Honestly, the topic is horribly boring to me and I would rather watch 1,000 episodes of The Glen Beck Show (I’m very liberal, see the irony?) than argue for these two works.

My Online Style

Quite an interesting prompt if you ask me. What is my online style? Before I begin on the main point this topic immediately made me think of texting and the new language it has created. One of my biggest annoyances is this idea of shortening words which came about with texting it seems. It's like shorthand for journalists but for people who feel the need to save half a second by typing "ttyl" instead of "talk to you later." Anyway, back to the main point, I feel my style is as though I'm writing on paper. I never use "internet speak", I find it repulsive. If I see any sort of document that has "omg, brb, ttyl" and the likes I immediately disregard the writing and move on. I feel the internet is a forum to show off your abilities and you will severely limit your willing audience by catering to one class of people. I tend to compose in much more detail than most people. It may be because I enjoy writing and creating sentences. It may be because I actually have something to say. When I read works done by teenagers and early twenties' students I sense a lack of passion when it comes to the important things. When I say important I mean world events not who's having who's baby.




I will be the first one to say "Twitter" is the worst idea ever thought. It teaches you to leave detail out and write in a pseudo language that only kids understand. As I have stated before, who cares about your life? What have you done that is so special that it warrants you sitting on your computer telling everyone? Why would I handicap myself with 140 characters?



I do have different styles for different occasions. I know I tend to write like someone who is in total disgust with his generation. It's true; this blog experiment has allowed me to vent my anger. This blog allows me pretty liberal amount creativity when it comes to the topics. I'm able to go off topic and back on topic, but I always feel I answer the question at hand. Obviously I wouldn't take this approach if I was writing for a prestigious online journal, but for this blog it works.



I feel my writing is still old school with a new school forum. There will never be, at least I hope, an acceptance for incorrect spelling and punctuation in the professional world. An employer will no accept papers or reports with “Omg r nmbrs r off.” The way I feel, why practice bad habits? Yes, the internet is a place where everyone has an opinion. Yes, they have a chance to be heard. Too bad you have to eventually get a job or start a career. I highly doubt your boss will accept your internet lingo in a report. Maybe the professional world will change eventually, but for now it hasn’t so either am I.

Improvement.

When I started this class I thought I was a pretty good writer. I knew I had flaws. Most notably the fact that I tend to write extremely long sentences and have pretty bad structure. I knew I had great ideas and much to say, I just didn't know how to format my ideas into a neat package. On a side note, I also had a very negative view on blogging in general. Back to the main point =) through the assignments that I have done in this class, I feel as though my writing has greatly improved. Even thought the Rhetorical Analysis wasn't my finest hour I felt it helped me with my MLA. Through blogging I am able to speak my mind about a certain topic each week. I very much enjoy this assignment each week. Through reading all of your blogs I have acquired a better ability to understand others points of view more clearly. By answering the critical thinking questions in our text, well, it forced me to actually read a text book for once. Though, the book wasn't that bad, some of the essays we're actually quite enjoyable and informative. Animal farm was probably my favorite part of the class. This is the third time I had read the novel and each time I keep getting more and more out of it! I felt it helped me understand what is going on during this in our world. Although written about communism it is extremely relevant to our current times, which is why I enjoy it so much. Although RLiT wasn't the most enjoyable reading experience for me, I did learn quite a bit. I'm not saying I disliked the novel but, it's not the typical genera that I gravitate towards.




To more current topics, our final paper. I would be lying if I said I was confident. Although I feel as if I have learned much and made huge leaps in my writing skill, I'm not looking forward to this paper. It looks a bit daunting to be honest. It will be challenging but much more satisfying when I do well on it! I do wish that I would have utilized the writing center quite a bit more, well, used it at all. I think since this was an online class it might have been helpful to have someone look at my work, just to make sure it was top notch. Mostly I should have probably gone over there to have my works cited page proofread. I’m most defiantly going to utilize that resource with this up coming paper!



All in all I would have to say everything I have done thus far in this course has greatly helped my writing skill. I knew I had major flaws that needed to be worked on and I’m fairly confident that much of my writing has improved, which is what I set out to do with this class.