| B1 |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|12:43 pm] |
B1
Over the course of my few short weeks studying rhetoric, I have not noticed any drastic change in my writing style nor in the way I approach writing a paper. Rather, I have started to realize a number of small, yet noticeable, changes in the way I think and the way I work through my thoughts. I started writing as a pastime, with no style and no structure, I used diction as creatively as I knew how, but other then a story with a defined plot, I had trouble piecing together what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. Along with helping me with my thought process, I have also begun to see things, like feminism and culture, in a different light than I have before. Whether I am simply paying attention more or actually understanding, or both, is irrelevant to the fact that things that were once unclear are now seen from a new perspective.
There is one of the five course strands I feel will not improve very much, not because it is a weakness, but because I feel it is already one of my greatest strengths. Research to me is not a boring and painstaking process; it feeds my desire to understand things I would otherwise not be exposed to. Once I start to look for information about most any topic, I become involved, whether I liked the initial subject of my research or not. I become overly involved every so often on a topic that particularly interests me, and I end up with hundreds of papers and notes from different books and online articles, when the class only needed a few sources. Over the last few years, once I finished my normal school work I would spend hours surfing the internet for nothing in particular, I would just try to find out as much information on any topic that came to my head at the time. With the amount and the extent to which I have done research in the past, I feel that there is room for improvement, but not much.
Growing up around computers and the internet, the technologies we have used so far in the class have not been nothing ground breaking or revolutionary for me. While in elementary and middle school, I used instant messenger a fair amount and in more recent times all but one or two of my friends have a Myspace or Facebook account. So while this class exposed me to writing my first blog, I have been around them for a number of years now. I will admit, I was greatly impressed with the efficiency of the Cybermansion and the ease of navigation within it. My last experience with a multi-roomed chat room was very complicated and confusing. In regards to the way we turn assignments in online through the Livejournal website, I find that an amazing idea. It brings me to the question of why more high schools do not do the same thing. It makes turning things in easier to remember and it helps to save reams of paper. The technology may not be new to me but I enjoy using it none the less.
If given the choice, I would rather work alone on a project than in a team, even if that meant staying up all night long to get it done. I am a perfectionist in many aspects and would rather do it right myself than trust someone else to do it right. I do work well with others if need be, but my preference is solo. The idea of peer reviews in class is a good idea and it helps me to open up to others in my writing, except for the person I sit next to and therefore review with. I have no place to complain, I could move to find a new partner at any time, but with the way he talks to me about my writing it is like I know nothing and he is all knowing, and of course my opinions on his work are worthless. Of course others in the class are not as condescending and share my view points, making it easier to open up to them. With those two factors combined, I feel my collaboration skills have improved. Since I have put myself in the uncomfortable situation of letting someone I do not know review and read my thoughts, and have been criticized for my style, I now have a better understanding of what to share and what to hold back for later. My life is lived as a series of trial and error, with the errors come understanding, so now I have a better understanding of the collaboration with other.
With such a broad spectrum of study in such a short time in class so far, ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. to pieces on transexuality, I feel very strongly that my ability to use language effectively has been bettered in more than one area. I have always enjoyed playing with words and learning how to say things unconventionally. Hearing the variety of works I have heard so far, I have been able to pick up on small aspects of each one, like the use of serious sarcasm by King or the use of examples by Mulvey in “Visual Pleasure in Narrative”, and I am trying, in my own personal pieces, to incorporate them into my style and see how they fit.
The term “out of the box” has been used to summarize my critical thinking by my parents, my friends and my teachers. I have never been able to think in a totally realistic state of mind. In many aspects of my life, this out of the ordinary way of thinking has helped me; it has allowed me to see how problems could be solved in different ways, producing radical yet feasible solutions to real world problems. At the same time, it has also hindered me in more than one way. When presented with the task of analyzing others’ work, especially art, I read too much into each piece and end up with this really in-depth analysis that can be in the complete opposite direction from the main point. When I am forced to write about a specific subject, I tend to get caught in side tangents and finish the paper on a completely different topic then I started with and I have to go back and rewrite most of it. By allowing me to choose my own topics for my essays, I have noticed myself staying to the point and not reaching as far into the realm of the unreal.
Being forced to write on a specified topic in a large class makes me feel as if I have a bar code tattooed on my wrist. I have no personal connection or emotion in my work, it is so generic. If I produce a piece in which I feel no connection, I in turn feel no confidence or individuality in it. I like to be free to write as I please, the more guidelines I must follow the more disassociated I feel to my own work. The essays so far have been so open that I feel a great pride in my work. When I write for fun, I have no rules or structure I must follow, I just write. In high school, I would do the same thing; write with no rules, just to get myself started. Then I would go back and change almost everything to make it fit the format the teacher wanted. This process took twice as long as sitting and simply following the format to begin with, but it was the only way I could get a rhythm and a flow to my writing. With the independence I am given in this class, I do not need to go back and rewrite anything, for I feel more confident and can flow easier on topics I choose.
Having my own way of writing comes in handy when I am writing for pleasure, but when it comes to arguments I ramble too much to make many distinct points, much less to make rebuttals. That is the aspect of my writing that I can find real fault with that has been touched upon in class. I am not sure if I was paying attention better this time around, but reading the argument section at the very beginning of the year helped make the style of a good argument paper make sense to me. It will take much practice before I become proficient at writing arguments, but the seed is set. Other than my ability to argue, I have not noticed much change, for good or bad, in my overall skill as a writer or the strategy with which I write.
Knowledge and understanding, to some are one in the same; to me, they are totally different features of learning. For me, I can know that the stove is hot, but I do not truly understand until I touch it and feel the burn. As I mentioned earlier, I live by my experiences, I gain my understanding of the world through what I have seen or felt. I learn not only from the bad experiences, but from the good ones as well. I learned right from wrong this way and how to do things such as wrestling. I came into this class with little knowledge of feminism ideology in general, and even less of transexuality. I have already gained a good amount of information into the thoughts and motives behind ideology, and even a brief look at transexuality. Will I be able to truly understand them in the context in which I view understanding? I do not know what the future holds, but there is a chance, maybe not the transexuality part but the future is unpredictable. I do not believe this class, or most classes can give me understanding, but I know I have already gained a great deal of knowledge in the short length of the class so far.
Reflection in writing can be taken two different ways; it can be taken as a reflection on one’s own work or as a reflection of one’s life and how it has influenced their writing. Reflecting on the pieces I have written so far this year, I notice a great deal more depth and concentration. I seem to be able to go farther into my own thoughts and bring out ideas I did not know existed in high school.
Rhetoric, so far in this year, has not changed my life or opened my eyes to revolutionary change, but it has given me more than I expected. It has given me the small building blocks that, combined together, form my writing style. |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
chrislazarus13's journal
