Blog Post #6

I thought our discussion this week about male privilege was very interesting because I never really think about how others view the male race, especially from the point of view of a woman. I would have loved to have also read other perspectives about this specific group of society from the eyes of other males, from children, from elders, from people of color, and from foreigners. It is always very interesting for me to see how each opinion about a certain group of society differs depending on the group viewing them. In addition, this topic of discussion brought to my attention my own social identity. I am a white, Jewish, young woman. I wonder how others view myself. I wonder how those of different color, those of different religion, and those of different gender perceive of me. I wonder how those from other countries view me. I wonder how my family views me. In fact, I wonder how other white, Jewish, women view me. Sometimes, people of the same social identity view others similar to them in a different light. Social identity is a very interesting topic that I look forward to exploring in my next essay. I also look forward to peer editing the next set of essays because it will allow me to enter the world of social identity of other members of my class.

Extra Credit

To my own surprise, I quite enjoyed listening to Philip Deloria's Writer to Writer podcast. I was really hooked on to a lot he had to say about his process of writing, his inspirations, driving forces and his experiences.

       The first thing that I really liked listening to was Deloria's method of seeking inspiration through "idea files". When he talked about a very generic thing that happens to all of us such as thinking about something really weird, but not pursuing it, I found myself agreeing readily. It makes me think of all those times a lot of weird stuff has occurred to me on a daily basis, but I have never bothered to explore any of it because I fear that nobody would get me. However, Deloria claims that he has been doing exactly that, so clearly, it works. He also talks about moving forward with these things with a full hundred percent, something which truly inspires me because I tend to not do that. It is fascinating to think that the smallest, most seemingly inconsequential ideas could lead to massive revelations and amazing work. 

     This conversation directly rolled over into Deloria's writing process, which honestly makes me appreciate him even more. He talks about the brutality of writing while he is not on leave and expands upon how he writes when he is. Listening to his method of eliminating all distractions, maintain a disciplined way of doing it and actually giving his hundred percent reminds me of how different my writing process is. He also talks about how it’s probably the easier thing to go over what one has already written and constantly edit and correct it, but he on the other hand aims to write afresh and keep building every day. I don’t know if I personally have it in me to be a very disciplined writer like Deloria is, but I certainly have immense respect for anyone who maintains a process like that. This part of the conversation is directly linked to what Deloria had to sat earlier regarding the giving in your fullest and not letting anything pass you by. If he gave into those distractions, be it only checking his email, there could be a chance of him missing out on some great idea that could have occurred to him but didn’t. After listening to what he had to say about finding time to write even in the midst of his busy schedule when he is not on leave, I think about how often I make excuses about not being able to find time to write outside of class. However, somewhere deep down I know that if I wanted, I could really make time for it, without compromising on other work.

         Moving on, I found the little excerpt from Deloria’s spa music essay really interesting. When Deloria mentioned that it was really goofy and funny, I expected a sarcastic, yet prominently funny take on assumedly spa music. But, by the time he was done reading, I was completely taken by surprise. For a moment, I didn’t know where Deloria was going with it, but when the essay took a very philosophical, yet so relatable character, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I loved how he connected something like spa music with “winners and losers in life” and talked about how the massage therapist was a “trickster”. Unable to figure out the meaning of trickster in the sense that Deloria intended, I was relieved when the interviewer asked him about it and he explained it as a recurring character theme in Native American folklore. Again, it is interesting to note how Deloria manages to bring in his passion and interest in the subject even into an essay on spa music. I thought a lot about the concept of the trickster tricking as well as being tricked. I think the spa essay was a very clever piece of writing and left me wondering about Deloria’s effortless, stylistic writing as he manages to make this an “ironic funny” piece without even trying. 

I was truly inspired by a lot of what Deloria said, especially his emphasis on the importance of our drafting process, something I had never done before I took LHSP 125. To be honest, I despised the idea earlier, but now believe that it is extremely helpful. I also agree with his emphasis on the importance of stricture and narrative in the process of writing and hope to build on that more. 

I am glad that I listened to this podcast and found Deloria's take on many things to be very relatable. I like how he conveyed his thoughts in a very amiable, conversational and humorous way, which I had not expected at first. I wish I had heard him in person, and definitely look forward to listening more of what he has to say. 

Extra Credit

I enjoyed listening to the podcast of the Writer to Writer conversation with Philip Deloria. It was cool to hear from a writer about how he thinks about writing. When I first heard Deloria talking about how he spent his days on leave writing, I was kind of surprised that he devoted so much of the day to writing. I think I was expecting him to say that he spent the morning writing and the rest of the day doing other stuff, but thinking about it afterward I had to remind myself that he’s a writer, so it makes a lot of sense for him to spend a lot of his day writing. I think that him having a set schedule every day centered around writing defined his writing as a main piece of work as opposed to a hobby. Another thing that I found important in this part of the conversation was that he said that he avoided checking his email before or during his writing time because it would distract him and disrupt the writing process. I agree with this, but thinking about it I also realized that I often check my email, even when I know I don’t have any new emails, as a way to distract myself from writing or doing other work. Because of this, I know very well that it doesn’t help the writing process, but I also know that it can be difficult to not get distracted by little things when the task at hand gets a little bit hard or boring. Deloria’s conversation is a reminder that discipline is very important when trying to complete a task. Even when writing gets hard or boring, it’s probably really important to force yourself to keep thinking about it, or at least not distract your brain with something else, because during that time new ideas could develop. If you give in to distractions, the opportunity for new ideas is gone.

When asked where his initial ideas come from, Deloria said that one of the things he finds important in realizing ideas is to pay 100% attention to the world, after which he immediately acknowledged that you can’t really always be paying 100% attention. But when you can give all of your attention to something, do it! He said to actually SEE stuff and not let it pass you by, which reminded me a lot of this class, especially what we talked about early on in the year. In every one of our essays we have been asked to look past what is immediately obvious, and dig deeper into things. We have also been encouraged to actually look and pay attention to our surroundings, especially in the first essay of the semester. I think this idea relates a lot to what Deloria was saying about seeing stuff and not letting it pass you by. There are so many things in our lives that we don’t actually see because they are there so much. Ordinary things that we don’t pay any attention to because either we don’t notice them anymore or because we don’t think they deserve being noticed. Deloria talked about something slightly different; not letting the weird things pass by. He mentioned that often we brush weird things aside and don’t pay attention to them, but if given some thought, they could turn into a whole new project with all kinds of ideas bursting out of them. Hearing this was an important reminder to me to not ignore things, especially since I feel like recently I have had a tendency to just keep walking and not give too much attention to things I might be curious about.

In talking about things he wishes he could get his students to do, Deloria said that he wishes students would understand the importance of taking the drafting process more seriously. He then gave an example of his experience drafting and re-drafting some of his own writing. Talking about his own writing seemed like the obvious thing to do, but at the same time added in some humanity and credibility to his suggestion and to himself - it showed that he, too, is a regular person in addition to being a writer, and that some parts of the writing process aren’t easy for him either. He talked about having done a draft that he liked and felt good about, but also knew that he needed to reorganize it, which is a very familiar feeling to me. I think often I am very reluctant to change things that I know need to be changed because I don’t want to feel like my ideas will be erased or destroyed. Deloria talked about the importance of being open to multiple draftings because no one nails it the first time. He also said to make sure there’s time to stop, pause, and have some time to think about what you’ve written. That’s something I’ve known for a while that I should do, but often during this semester I found myself putting off writing drafts so that, besides the time between peer reviews and final drafts, I didn’t really end up having time to set the draft aside and come back to it. That is something I hope to work on in the future. I appreciated that he acknowledged that the drafting process can be painful because that makes me seem less different from a “real” writer.

Deloria also said that one of his favorite moments as a writer is reading something and realizing it’s not as bad as he thought it was. This is actually similar to one of my favorite feelings - going back and reading something and thinking “I wrote this? Dang! That’s brilliant!” It’s humbling to see that people who write professionally can doubt themselves so much and have these moments too.

Extra Credit

Deloria speaks about a ‘trickster,' which is a philosophical figure that traditionally appears in Native American stories and is meant to demonstrate "how to live by knowing how not to live; here's how to not live by knowing how to live.” He uses a trickster as this narrative voice in this piece of short fiction to show how the spa is not an accurate depiction of the life of a winner, and that in reality, a winner acquires a high status in society by making sure others are considered losers in comparison to them. To summarize this idea, he claims that life is actually "the delusion and privilege of the winner.” This statement stuck out to me initially because Deloria uses the word “privilege” because this concept frequently appeared towards the end of the semester around the time we were writing our personal narrative essays. I found his use of the spa metaphor particularly interesting because we have discussed so much in class the role of our social identities about others but in a more literal sense, like in McIntosh’s essay about her privileges as a white woman. While Deloria doesn’t directly reference minority groups in society like McIntosh does, he parallels the idea there is a social hierarchy of “winners” and "losers" in our society and one cannot exist without the presence of the other. 

During this discussion, Deloria claims that he believes structure and argument of a piece of writing are more important than narrative voice and tone. I found this particularly interesting because, in my educational career, this has not been the case in regards to the curriculum I’ve been taught. For example, after taking LHSP 125, I’ve been able to identify that one of my major weakness in writing is structure and organization of the overall piece because. I assume that this is because, before college, my lessons on writing mainly focused on developing a writer’s voice — which I believe is one of my biggest strengths in writing today. Also, Deloria states that narrative skill and fluidity compensate for solid structure in writing, and he uses his poetry as an example. I find this especially ironic because recently I have often looked to poetry when trying to improve my style of writing. The general point Deloria makes here caught my attention and got me thinking because it somewhat contradicted how I’ve personally developed as a writer throughout the course of my education.

When he was asked what advice he would give to students by the interviewer, Deloria says that they should take the drafting process very seriously and be honest with themselves during the writing process. By working and re-working a draft, he believes that the final product will be much better as well. Being open to constant revision and accepting that one’s writing is not as good as it can be, according to Deloria, is difficult but ultimately makes the best writers. This advice reminded me of the Thomas Mann quote that was put on the board earlier this year: “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Deloria acknowledges that repeatedly drafting a piece of writing over and over is a super hard and time-consuming, but that this is what the best writers do — just like what Mann says in this quote. I found it interesting that we started and ended LHSP 125 with the same general idea about writing, but now I understand it so much better due to what I have learned in this course. Personally, I agree with Deloria and Mann because the best pieces of writing that I have produced (and the best pieces or art as well) have come from adapting it into several drafts and constantly re-structuring until I can’t bare to look at it anymore.

Blog Post #7

By the time I graduated high school, I was pretty confident in my writing abilities. While I knew that I had much more to learn in college, I was unaware of the extent to which this class would change my opinion on my own writing. After taking LHSP 125, I have realized that one of my biggest struggles in the writing process of any English assignment is developing a strong, organized essay around a central thesis — which I learned very early on in my education, but never discussed further in the context of college-level writing. Also, in LHSP 125, I was first introduced to the idea of a complex thesis when we were working on Essay Assignment #4 which further complicated how I worked with a thesis. Overall, this class challenged how I organized, structure, draft, and develop a thesis while writing an essay, and has left me less confident than at the start of this semester. However, I think this is a good thing because it means that I have risen my standards for my writing and motivates me to continue to grow as a writing because I am now aware of where my weaknesses lie. 

In this English course, I have had to write longer papers that count towards more of my cumulative grade in shorter amounts of time. As a result, I’ve developed new methods and processes of writing essays in general. Specifically, rather starting by brainstorming or outlining, I now immediately start writing paragraphs of ideas as they pop into my head because I’ve learned that getting all my initial ideas down as fast as I can ultimately leave me with less work to do later in the drafting process. This saves an immense amount of my time and makes my work longer with less overall effort.

A final thing I learned from this course is descriptive writing. In high school English, I never got the opportunity to neither write descriptive pieces nor creative/personal narratives like I did in this class. I’m glad that I got the chance to write in this way because I think it was valuable to my overall writing abilities by letting me explore a writing perspectives and voices I have not been able to before. 

Extra Credit

One of the things that really fascinates me is how the people who write get the ideas for their writing. Listening to Deloria's process of 'idea files' for stories and his general advice on how to generate ideas for writing were quite interesting. Deloria was asked how he generates ideas for his books, was it actively or did he just wait for an idea to pop into his head? He said that he tries to pay his full attention to what was going on around him, and not let stuff pass you by. He said to not let little ideas pass you by, to not forget it. By scouring into the weird, he sometimes find things that are worth writing about. I personally do not think of myself as a writer. Sometimes I like to write little posts to myself when I'm bored, for example but that's about it. However, I have been wanting to write something of my own for a while- something interesting, something witty, something I could be proud of. There's a website called Wattpad where people can post their own stories, and every summer I told myself that I'd write one. However, I could never think of what exactly I want to write about, and how I'd even start. I realised as I was listening to Deloria that part of my problem of my lack of inspiration is my very low attention span. I am often oblivious to my surroundings, and don't notice things unless explicitly pointed out to me. If only I could make a better effort to be more aware, and not hesitate to speak to people and let my curiosity be piqued, I may just end up finding something that I think would be worth sharing.
Another thing Deloria talkes about is discipline. He says his prime time for writing is in the early morning, and he tries to write for a solid amount of time without any distractions. He mentions how he avoids line editing in this process, which I think is something a lot of us (at least I) tend to do, and something that could benefit us if we avoided it. By going back to edit the little things while we write, our flow gets interrupted and we often forget what we wanted to write. This is particularly bad for me, as I tend to not plan what I write in advance, instead going with the flow of ideas that pop into my head when I write. He also mentions how he takes short breaks to do some physical activity after writing a bit. I think this could be potentially a very useful strategy as when I write I often feel mentally exhausted, and focusing on physical exertion helps clear up my mind so I can think from multiple perspectives when I go back to my writing. Writing is a very time consuming process, that requires full attention in order for it to be the best quality it can be. It is very impressive to me how people can write entire novels while working at the same time. Although Deloria mentions that his work when he isn't on leave isn't the best, he still makes time for it. Although I do not intend to major/minor in writing or pursue it as a career, I definitely like using it as an outlet for my emotions and ideas. He reminded me that it isn't necessary that I can only write when I have nothing at all to do, in summer for example. Instead, I can make time for writing during the semester, even for a few hours a week.
Deloria also talks about how in the writing process drafting is particularly important. He says that it's very difficult to nail something the first time it's written. It's encouraging to me to hear that such an experienced and accomplished writer also feels this way, and doesn't write perfectly the first time around. I think I may have mentioned on this blog before that in my high school career a lot of emphasis was never placed on re-drafting as most of the time for our english classes we had on the spot writing and submission. Something valuable that I've learnt after coming here is the importance of the editing and re-drafting process. Deloria says to keep thinking about the primary question- because usually there is only one primary question and this needs to be answered well and throughly. He says that if it isn't dress properly, it is a must to reframe the entire thing. I still cringe when I think of how much more effort this takes, but I've realise that I've done this multiple times with my essays this semester and although it was a lot of work, it payed off in the end. I had a more comprehensive, well flowing essay after thinking about my thesis and the primary purpose of my essay, and how well I have presented it.
I quite enjoyed listening to Deloria and will definately keep a watch out for more of the Writer-to-Writer series.

Blog Post #7

I have definitely learned a lot about myself as a writer and about writing itself this past semester. In high school, I was very used to writing analytical essays about novels and essays, so delving into the world of more creative yet still analytical writing was challenging but also rewarding. I loved having choices, whether it was picking my place of interest or picking my advertisements to compare. I also loved being able to explore the usage of the first person pronoun, "I." It was nice to be given some freedom as a writer, which allowed me to find my voice and my style. Over this semester, I feel that I have definitely improved in terms of writing, but I still have many areas in which I could improve upon. Most notably, I hope to write less wordy. I want to become more concise and more to the point. I am big on deep, vivid description, so I need to learn how to create a balance between good insight and good sentence quality. I also want to work on varying my sentences so my essays do not sound monotonous. I look forward to delving deeper and deeper into the world of writing and I hope to keep improving myself. I am grateful for what my Freshman writing class has provided for me this semester, I wonder what the next four years will have in store for me.

Writing Styles

For the past several years, the majority of my writing has been in analysis. With the exception of some poetry and other creative writing that popped up in some classes throughout high school, everything  I wrote was critical of someone else's work, from fellow student to author. Especially last year when I took a vigorous analytical writing class, I've gotten very used to writing analytical pieces with a relatively free direction. This year, I've realized that I'm not so accustomed to writing with narrower prompts or creative pieces. Rather than write the artistic work, I've always been on the end of criticizing it in my papers; whether that be in acclamation or denunciation.

Transitioning to this class initially didn't feel any different; the analytical placement essay and self-evaluation essays felt somewhat normal for me to write. It wasn't anything new to me, each of the essays felt somewhat natural to write. As we got into the first essay, however, I realized that the same techniques and styles I used in my analytical pieces weren't going to work at all; the result was one of my first and (thus far) only "artistic" pieces, which to me felt choppy and clunky in my use of figurative language and literary devices. I had seen it done several times before up to that point; I've read some beautiful things that I couldn't even imagine turning out myself, and when I actually tried for the first time to do so, it fell flat as I expected. Though, looking back, I think that's a fair starting point for what I hope to be the first of many artistic pieces of writing.

As the weeks went on and we wrote about the amazing graffiti, then the advertisements, and all up to the narrative we're finishing up now, I've worked on the same skills I've seen other people using. Everyone else in the class uses the artistic writing techniques very well. In many cases, I was incredibly jealous of how well they did, and I tried it out but couldn't seem to get it right. I've seen it so often in things that I've read, but to see the people around me do it to the same degree of intricacy was something new and well worth the experience of the class.

I have a lot to learn about the artistic styles of writing, and I'm glad that was pointed out to me in this class, and I'm happy to have found a starting point. I'm also very happy to have had the pleasure of writing with good writers and reading what they've had to say in their various artistic fashions, as well as receiving feedback on what I need to work on.

Privilege

I agree with the fact that some people are born into and raised with more privilege than others. Privilege can be tied to a number of things, most prominently race, sex, and income. As a disclaimer for all of the examples I use, I am not saying that each of these scenarios will happen, I'm just pointing out that they're undeniably more common than they should be.

Racially, privilege is most differentiated compared to sex and income. For example, when a black person is pulled over by a white cop, it's reasonable for them to be worried about their well-being, given the long history of police being more hostile with black people they interact with. It seems ingrained in society today that if you're not white, you have to work harder; that if you're not white, you're going to be unsafe; that if you're not white, the world is against you. Where a white person would have no problem getting a job, it may be harder for a black person with equal credentials to get a job.

Sex is subject to privilege differences as well. A prominent example of this is in the infamous glass ceiling example, which states that in a business, after a certain amount of promotions, it becomes almost impossible for a woman to climb up further. For a man, it becomes almost expected that they'll receive a large chain of promotions if they've been with a business for a long time and are doing well. If instead of a man it's a woman, it's less likely that they'll receive the same chain of promotions. Even in everyday life it's evident that sex impacts privilege. For example, I feel almost no threat or concern when walking home late at night on campus, but many of my female friends have expressed worry when they have had to do the same.

Income and socioeconomic status is a huge determiner of privilege. For example, it's much easier for someone from a rich family to get into a good college or get a good job, especially if their family has connections to the institution. It's also much easier for these people to go through college and not have any financial struggle, and many are even well-off in terms of financial status. Someone who comes from a poor or lower-middle class family does not have these same connections, and life will be harder for them by a large margin without the privilege others have.

Privilege is something that affects everyone: either you're on the privileged end or the unprivileged end. As a society, it's our responsibility to undo these privileges in any way we can. Put an end to racism to the best of our ability, and likewise for sexism. As for income and socioeconomic status, that's another issue. It can't be dealt with the same methods used against sexism and racism; it boils down completely to politics. It would take a strongly anti-rich, redistributive political climate to undo the privilege given by income and socioeconomic status.

Extra Credit Assignment (Philip Deloria Response)

       Something that I found really interesting was when Philip Deloria talked about his writing process. This was covered heavily at the beginning of his talk, but it was referenced throughout the entire thing. It is interesting for me to learn about successful writers' writing processes because I like to compare mine to theirs. I can see how my writing process, as an 18-year-old amateur writer, is similar or different to such a successful writers'. While Deloria did make a distinction between his writing process while on leave and while not on leave, his schedule is drastically different to mine. He mentioned how, last year, he was on leave, and he would wake up every day at eight to write for the next few hours. After, he took a short break, followed by more writing, and then an even longer break. This longer break was followed by, of course, more writing, editing, and responding to emails. I obviously do not have this much time, nor does he, now that he has returned from leave, but I still see similarities in our writing processes. He mentioned how it is a tendency of his to "line-edit" instead of creating new content. This is also a tendency of mine, and also something that I try to prevent. He also reads what he has previously written as a "runway" into what he is going to write. Deloria also mentions his inspirations for things that he writes; while he recalls that, once, an idea for a book exploded into his head after seeing something in only sixty seconds, he also keeps "idea files" in his head. I can relate to this because I have had both experiences; it is interesting for me to see his process because the writing process can be so similar and so different for everyone at the same time.
       Deloria's analysis of his own poetry was also interesting. He stated that he had started to write poems when nothing else seems fit as a condolence after someone's death. This idea resonates with me because I agree; how can one comfort another after death? Conversational sentences are often inadequate or forced, but poetry can often say that which the spoken word often cannot. Deloria also mentions how he exclusively wrote poems for condolences, but he eventually stopped because he doubted the quality of these poems. He then went on to say that maybe his poems were good, but he just didn't know it. I think that one is not inherently created with an ability to do something but the potential to hone it. While I am no one to critique such a successful writer, writing should not be solely for quality. People have many different reasons to write, whether someone else deems it "good" or "bad." Also, different types of writing appeals to different people; it is possible that his poems could change my entire life. It was humbling, however, for a writer to admit his weaknesses. Writing is often examined as one entity, but, in reality, poetry is very different from essay writing. Hearing a writer admit that he is not good at one type of writing is inspiring for aspiring writers listening and his students; one does not need to be good at every type of writing, or even good at writing at all in order to write.
      When asked what he could persuade aspiring writers to do, Deloria answers that he would persuade them to take the drafting process seriously. Until this year, I was never given a drafting period. In high school, we had one chance; we submitted the essay, and then we would get our grade. The essay would often never be revisited again, but occasionally, we were allotted a period of revision. However, this revision only counted for a small portion of our grade, so no one ever took this part of the process seriously. Until college, when we were given opportunities to complete peer reviews, I never took the drafting process seriously. Deloria states that no one ever "nails it" the first time, and, from experience, I can agree with him. On my second essay, the essay in which we wrote about graffiti, after the peer review, I rewrote the essay entirely. Of course, the essay had similar themes and ideas that I got from the peer review, but it was completely transformed. Since I never had the opportunity to revise in high school, this was the first time when I really agreed: no one ever "nails it" the first time. A few months later, I am still proud of that essay, and I know I would not be if I kept my first draft.
      Deloria also mentioned his own responses to essays. He said that he is trying to move away from comments in the margins, and, at first, this puzzled me. His new method of response is to send video responses to essays with only light comments in the margins. To be completely honest, at first, I thought this was somewhat creepy. While Deloria is being very personal, he is almost being too personal. Would I want to hear my professor's voice critiquing my writing for an extended period of time? I like to read over the comments in the margins at my own pace. But Deloria explained why he has started using this system, and I am actually much more open to it now. Sometimes, comments in margins seem too distant or even harsh. Comments often lack tone, which can lead to a lapse of understanding for the person who receives the comments. Looking back on my past english classes, teachers often wrote many comments that I did not understand or seemed trite. Using videos instead of written comments could mitigate this lack of understanding by adding tone to the voice of the person commenting. Overall, it was extremely interesting to hear such a successful writer talking about his writing process and other analysis of his own behaviors!

Final blog post

I am honestly shocked by how fast this semester went by, and even more shocked by how much I learned in such a short period of time. This class not only allowed me to express myself and ideas dealing with social identities but helped me learn how to write convincing analytical essays.
For me, I was always better at writing personal narratives and struggled with analytical essays. But in this class I found the opposite. I found that my skills in analytical essays progressed so much that that form of writing became my strength. This left me struggling to write the personal narrative.
I am so grateful for the progress my writing went through. In addition, I am glad I got to hear from such a range of peers in class. We all come from different places and different background and coming together to talk about everyday issues was so important to me. I can't wait for the next LHSP class!

How LHSP 125 Has Affected My Writing

During high school, my writing classes used an advanced English curriculum that required students to write up to five papers a week. While this rigorous method helped me to develop good time management strategies and improved my writing to an extent, I never felt very connected to the subjects I was writing about or had confidence that I could express an opinion on any topic. My view of myself as a writer was very narrow: I knew with total certainty that all I could do was write poetry, that I was no good at essays or short fiction or personal narratives.

LHSP 125 has changed that mindset entirely. The more I wrote, the more I believed that I had something to say, and the more I learned to express it with clarity and conviction. Coming into this class, I believed that I couldn't make a descriptive piece of writing compelling, and yet I finished my first paper successfully. I wasn't sure that I could be convincing in my analysis of artwork, and yet I am incredibly proud of my second paper. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could not write ten pages about anything, and yet I learned a lot and actually had fun while writing my third paper. With each piece of homework I became more confident about my ability as a writer, and now I feel that, with enough planning and critical thinking, I can complete any writing assignment given to me with relative success. I know now that I do not have to limit myself to just one type of writing: I can, and should, try it all!

My Writing Has Changed

Coming in, I was very nervous about what essay-writing would be like in college. I had no idea that my first college writing experience would be so beneficial. I also never thought that my writing would improve so drastically in such a short amount of time. This semester, I have definitely seen my writing skills develop. For the first time in a while, I was presented with challenging writing prompts that involved intense thinking and numerous rewrites. I have never put so much effort into my essays before. Being able to discover my thoughts in my own writing was definitely new for me. I used to think that you had to know exactly how you were going to write about something before you wrote it. But, this semester, I have learned how to turn my essays into an experience and find what I am trying to say as I write. Being able to talk about social identity and other topics that actually apply to the real world was also super helpful. To add, being able to incorporate those real-world topics into my essays was so nice. For once, I felt like I was writing about things that actually matter.

As far as the future goes, I can only see my writing improving further. Based on how much my writing ability has changed in just a few months, I assume that my writing will continue to grow stronger in the next three years of school. I know for a fact that I will stop every now and then to appreciate the hidden beauty of a special location. I know for a fact that I will not pass up public art without attempting to understand the story behind it. And, I know for a fact that at some point I will come across an advertisement on television that will provoke me to think of its intended message. I can only thank Scott for opening up my eyes to a new area of writing and helping me improve so much in just a single semester.

Final Blog Post

As I reflect on this class over the past three months, I think about one of our first assignments, a prompt asking what we hope to accomplish in our first semester.  I remember writing that I wanted to approve my writing skills, or rather, to gain more confidence in writing, especially from a non-academic standpoint.  While  I have partaken in upper-level writing courses in high school, these assignments were more on analyses of books and stories we read, and analyzed rhetorical devices to explain the reasoning for author's decisions.  It was good prep,and I enjoyed analytical arguments, but when it came to analysis, I lacked that same enthusiasm and confidence.  This probably explains why I felt that the second and third essays came easiest to me.

That being said, this class was helpful towards allowing me to gain the same confidence of writing less analytical and more personal, descriptive narratives.  I remember in my first assignment that getting out of my comfort zone in writing involves me writing what I am uncomfortable with.  This class gave me the opportunity to do so, and despite my insecurities with my drafts, I have always had my classmates and/or the professor to assist with later development.

So in a way, I am thankful for my opportunity to take this class, and I will apply any skills devoted towards writing, whether analytical or otherwise, to any of my future classes.

Last blog post

When I initially took this class, I had no idea what it was about or what I was getting into. I just took the class that fit in well with my schedule, expecting all the LHSP classes to be sort of similar. I then realised how writing intensive this class was going to be, and don't get me wrong- writing is fun for me, but the work and effort I put into it is not. Needless to say, I was quite skeptical about this class.

Over these months however, I can genuinely say my writing has improved a lot more than when I started, and I am much more confident in putting my ideas across too. In high school I had never written long papers, we were tested with timed tests instead. I realise how much better my writing is once I revise and re-revise until I am satisfied with what I wrote. My first peer review wasn't easy for me either, having never done one before. However peer reviews are something that I now view as incredibly useful. I realised how after my first draft of every essay is written, I really look forward to the peer reviews to find out from fresh perspectives how I could improve my essays. Even more surprising, I found out I really like reviewing other people's essays too. It was very interesting to read how others approached the same topics as I did. I remember at the beginning of the class, we read a piece explaining how peer reviews aren't busy work- but they help us become better critiques of our own work. I couldn't agree more. 

Overall, I can almost say with certainty that this was my most useful class this semester and thank you so much Mr. Scott for being so helpful, enthusiastic and genuinely interested in improving our writing skills!

extra credit

1. One of things I found most interesting is when Deloria talked about how the way he came about his first book was very different compared to his second book. He said the first one exploded in his mind in only 60 seconds, but the second one was long and drawn out. I found it reassuring that even notable writers have different methods for creating their various pieces of work. This semester we talked a lot about our writing processes. I found coming up with an initial solid idea was hard because after peer review or even after I start writing I had to chance something about my main idea. Deloria explains that the two books came so differently and thats okay because they are both works he is proud of.

2. One of the other things that caught my attention, was ironically when Deloria discussed the best way to form ideas to write about is to be attentive. And, more importantly not let those moments of attentiveness pass you bye. He says we have to capitalize on them and figure out why that moment caught your eye. Then while he was talking he said something that he found interesting to himself, and goes "thats a great title"meaning for his next piece of work. The way the idea came so naturally to him made me realize that he was not just speaking to hear his own voice. He truly believed the words he is saying. I liked this because I feel that a lot of times I am confused within my own thoughts but as soon as I start speaking them aloud I find clarity.

3. Lastly, he said that he often tries to "turn off" and not focus on his writing. This way when he comes back to his work he has a fresh pair of eyes ready to refocus. He does not see it as a process that can be rushed nor done straight for 3 hours. He feels that you have to make short periods of time to write.

4. As I am looking for classes to take next semester, a poetry class is on my mind. Deloria talked about how the only time he wrote poetry is when someone died. I feel like this is promoting the stereotype that poetry is sad and depressing. While it sometimes is, it most certainly does not have to be. Then they went on to discuss what makes good poetry. To me it is subjective but poetry that makes you think with out blatantly telling you ones emotions and holding a rhythm in the piece is good poetry.

Blog Post #7

Something that I was reminded of in our most recent social identity unit in terms of writing was that writing doesn’t have to be complex to be descriptive. Of course I already knew this, but the Rankine and Reid essays reminded me of this. In class we talked about how in Reid’s essay he was able to make his descriptions more effective by keeping his wording concise and blunt. I think personally I have a tendency to want to describe all the inner details of feelings, but as we discussed in class, sometimes this can take away from the message trying to be conveyed. I completely understand this, but at the same time, when I write I want to be absolutely sure that the reader is understanding what I’m saying so I may tend to overwrite. I think there’s probably a time and a place for each of those approaches, but it’s important to remember that there is more than one approach. Similarly, the Rankine reading reminded me that using second person is an option that can be quite effective. In class people also mentioned that most people are not as comfortable writing in second person, and I think this is probably in part because in high school and before using “you” in writing was generally discouraged. It’s probably for that reason too that a lot of us don’t realize how useful using second person could be.

Blog Post #6

As a white female myself, reading McIntosh’s essay had some effects on me regarding how I see my own identity and how I see the cultural context in which I live. The majority of what she included on her list of “privileges” were facts that were already evident to me, but that I could not have identified on my own nor would I have gone out of my way to list one-by-one in this format. However, one point on this list that I’ve thought about on my own terms was number six: "I can turn on the television of open to the front page of the paper and see people of my own races widely and positively represented.” The media today has a tendency misrepresents people, and as a result, this causes tension and resentment from different parts of society. However, unlike education, the media is not an institution — it’s an industry. This is troubling because it seems as though media and education have the same impact on people’s beliefs and perspectives. For example, McIntosh states that one of her privileges is that she was taught about mainly the accomplishments of her own race when shaping our national heritage without ever noticing how other races remain, for the most part, unaccounted for. Likewise, she turns on the television and sees white people — reporting the news, acting in scripted shows, etc — without ever noting their race. In both of theses examples, she makes us aware of how society has subconsciously taught us to see white as the norm and most dominant by portraying white people significantly more frequently than other races, implying that white is the majority when in reality it is not at all. By listing privileges like this, she also makes the reader aware that they have been interpreting the appearance of characters of other races as unusual and progressive based solely on their race/ethnicity. 

McIntosh also drastically altered the way I see the word “privilege.” Before reading this paper, I associated “privilege” with being lucky or blessed in a positive way. However, McIntosh disputes this notion by declaring it a word that is negative because it creates a divide between those who are privileged and those who are not — particularly on issues of race and sex. In other words, having “privilege” implies that somebody else does not and should want to obtain it but cannot. The word creates a boundary that I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed if I hadn’t read this essay.

Final Peer Review (Sad!)

Today, it really hit me that it's the end of the semester. I'm not going to lie, I have been counting down the days until I fly home. But today's peer review was somewhat sad for me because I realized that it was the last one I would ever be doing in this particular class. I also thought back to the essay that was handed out about peer reviews at the beginning of the semester; at that point, while reading that essay, I really had no idea what an integral part of my writing process the peer review would be. One thing I still remember from that essay is that, when a student complained to the teacher about how he did not receive adequate feedback from his peers, the teacher replied that it's not about the feedback that he receives. I always understood this idea, but, when I first heard it, I didn't think it was true. But peer reviews are not about improving one's writing; they are about improving one's writing process. They have definitely taught me to be a more disciplined and thoughtful writer while also granting me eight opportunities to read extremely insightful essays that I would not have otherwise read. It almost saddens me that I was only able to review eight people in our class's writing-- we should have had a fifth essay! But, truthfully, almost all of my peers' writing that I had the pleasure to read this semester was extremely insightful and taught me something about my own writing. In regard to the essay topic that we reviewed itself, the personal narrative essay was definitely my favorite from the whole semester. I have a lot of contemplation to do after today's peer review, but I love prompts that are extremely broad so that I can make them my own. Overall, peer reviews were an extremely positive experience for me, and I think I will use them in the future even if they are not required for a grade or no formal letter is given.

Extra credit

I enjoyed listening to this segment; Phil Deloria sounds like a fascinating guy with a real talent and passion for writing.

One thing that I found really interesting and helpful in listening to him talk was his writing process. Phil says that the best time for him to write is in the morning. He fills up on breakfast and tries to be sitting down to write by 8 am. While this seems early, it makes sense that this writing would be his best because he hasn't had the day to clutter his mind with other random thoughts yet. I wonder how he knows and when he came to discover that this was the perfect time to write the best writing. It's something that I think I should try, writing as soon as I wake up, to see if it actually makes a distinct difference. When he writes like this, Phil made sure to mention that he does not edit and revise as he writes. He ignores mistakes or awkward sentences and just tries to spill out his brain. I'm sure this is a very useful technique; it is something I plan to try. Also, he talks about how important it is to not get distracted. He mentions that the only time we can actually see things is when something has 100% of our undivided attention. Of course, there's no way I can disagree with this. I wish that I wrote more with less distractions, but it's hard to resist checking social media when I get stuck! Perhaps I will give un-distracted writing another, more motivated try.

Another thing that was fascinating was actually just a simple few sentences. Phil Deloria emphasizes the importance of the word "the" in the phrase "this is the life." I have never thought about this before, but when you don't include that small word, the phrase becomes a description of normalcy. It reminds me of how people stress the word "the" when they say "THE University of Michigan" or "THE Ohio State University" because THE becomes such a powerful adjective that explains just how important and unique something is. Without it, the thing is so normal and commonplace. I thought this was a very interesting observation.

The final thing that really stuck out to me was when Phil talked about things to consider when you're writing. He advised the audience to understand what your book (or paper, essay, poem, etc.) is, who your audience is, and how that piece will present you as an author. I thought those were three important ideas for an author to remember while writing. I related it to having to write for class versus writing for the Arts and Literary Journal for LHSP. Whatever I write, whether it's to turn in or to submit for inclusion in the journal, it has to fit what is asked of me. For class, the piece has to fit the prompt, but for the literary journal, it has to fit in the context of the journal. The audience for class and the journal is quite different as well. For class, a professor is judging my work, while the Arts and Literary Club students are judging my work for submission, so I must write to relate to them. I also think about how I will be positioned when I submit my work to canvas or the club. On one hand, I hope my academic writing allows my professor to see my skills and think of me higher as a writer. On the other hand, I want to be positioned as a reflective and powerful writer for the literary journal, powerful enough to compel the students to vote to include my piece.

I'm glad I got the chance to listen to Phil Deloria speak about his experiences with writing and I'll be looking out for other Writer-to-Writer events.

Identity essay

Writing this most recent essay has proved to be a bit of a challenge for me. I think that this is because I am writing about a very personal topic- my genetic history as part of my identity. Although this topic is extremely important to me and is something that I think about almost everyday, I never really attempted to explore these emotions and thoughts through writing. Maybe this is because for so long the history of cancer in my family has been too painful for me to think about, and therefore I pushed these thoughts out of my mind. Or maybe it is because I did not know all of the facts about my genetic history until recently. I think that while it is a rather painful and difficult thing to actually write, I am actually glad that I am being forced to write these thoughts down for this essay assignment, because it has allowed me to embark on the road to accepting this part of my identity. I think that I am currently struggling with using descriptive language and visual imagery to tell my stories in this essay, but hopefully after peer review my peers will have some helpful critiques for me.

Snow

Every time the snow falls I become overwhelmed with a feeling unlike any other; a mix of happiness, coziness, warmth, and relaxation. As far back as I can remember, I've experienced a very snowy winter. I've walked through miles of it to get to the school bus, gotten trapped in it more times than I can count, and had all sorts of fun in it. I remember that as a child, I would build snowmen in the yard and prepare fortresses stocked full of snowballs. Whenever I shoveled the driveway with my brothers, we would compete to get the most snow on "our side," and "our side" was the land we claimed in the yard to have snowball fights over. We built the snowmen to populate each of our sides, and it was a big deal whenever one of us hit one of them: we each spent a lot of time on our snowmen. One year, I recall the snow going up to my head on either side of the driveway. I had to kick in a foothold in what was to me a wall of icy snow in order to get up onto my side of the yard. I remember that whenever my mother or father used the snowblower on the driveway, they would try to aim the exhaust for the snow towards a pile by the front porch so we could use our sleds. They were only ever 3 or 4 feet tall, but it still felt fun to go down on the sled and skate on the icy driveway on the mornings of the weekend. We also used to collect the biggest icicles from the roof and hide them. At some point, they became a currency that we exchanged for snowballs or sled time. Nowadays I don't spend much time out in the snow, but every year it seems like it snows less and less, and much later than the year previous. I fear one day soon it will be gone forever in Michigan, so I need to start making the most out of it while it's still here.

The snow makes me especially happy because it often meant a snow day if there was enough of it. Almost every year while I went to school in Kalamazoo, the first big snowing would be responded to with a snow day. Throughout the year, we often had days off at a time as big storms came through; one week during my sophomore year of high school, we had classes for one day out of the five we were supposed to. Even though it's incredibly unlikely that we'll get a snow day at U of M, it makes me happy to see the snow fall just so that I can get the old feeling of getting snowed inside for the day, where I can drink plenty of coffee or hot chocolate and enjoy a cozy, warm day to myself. 

Blog Post # 7

When I look back at the beginning of this semester, I think of how I had never considered taking this class, because I had never enjoyed writing about perspective and "seeing" before. However, once I was in, I was surprised by how much the content of the class affected me. Each essay was such a rewarding experience and I truly mean it because I realized that I had never written so fruitfully before. Earlier, I would use bigger words and write in a flowery language. I emphasized language more than thought and often got lost in the stylistic quality of my writing more than the main point itself. My writing used to be all over the place, as I would never have a thesis, but would just pen down everything that came to my mind about a certain topic. Now, all that has changed and I much more confident about how to express my opinions and thoughts about a topic. I have found myself to be more analytical than before and I see myself "seeing" more than I did earlier. Apart from the writing, all the conversations and discussions we shared in class were equally rewarding, along with the readings, which I would have normally never come across. 

I think that Monday's class was effective because I realized that in my essay's rough draft, I had really explained my emotions, instead of showing them and letting the reader interpret them. I found the personal narrative essay to be challenging because I was very unsure of myself the entire time. At first, I didn't know how to show my emotions without mentioning them because unlike Reid and Tan, I didn't have an interesting enough experience which could be talked about in that way. However, after the class, I realized that I was getting the hang of the technique somewhat and now plan to use it for my final draft. I think this technique is effective because instead of just expressing the emotion, if the writer brings it out through a common experience through which we all feel the same emotion, then the reader would feel it better. For example, what Emma said in class about jigsaw puzzles and confusion is something we all can relate to, because we know that it would be confusing to join differently shaped puzzles. I also felt very awed by Reid's style of writing and I would go as far as to call it one of the most powerful personal accounts I have read. 

I look forward to my writing class next semester and see how my writing changes, while I bring in what I learnt this time. 

Social Identity

I know we did not get to the social identity model in class today but I thought I would still talk about social identity considering it was a huge part of our current paper. When writing this paper, I had no idea how much my social identity influenced this event in my life. I talked about my age as an identifier for myself, and to be honest I had not thought about this situation like this before discussing with Mr. Beal. Once he pointed out that it sounded like age was a large factor I started to write and by the end of the paper, my thoughts completely changed. In the beginning I was writing as if my age negatively impacted the situation, but by the end I was talking about how I am grateful for my age and the chances it gave me. While I know this is hard to understand without reading my whole paper, I thought the change in my thought process was extremely interesting. I considered going back and making my points more consistent, but instead I am planning on adding a paragraph that talked about the transition my thoughts went through while writing this paper. My original thoughts are still valid and I want my reader to be able to see my thought process.

Blog post 7

One of the reasons why I chose this class over other LHSP classes was because in the course description there was a quote from Alice Fulton's piece that read, "“…let my glance be passional / toward the universe and you.” I was initially drawn to this line because I love the idea of being passionate about something. I love listening to someone talk about their passion and being passionate myself. I think that the intense love that is passion really makes life worth living. As I read on, I learned that the class focused a lot on social identities, something I could honestly say I was not very passionate about. It's not that I didn't have those identities, but rather I didn't feel that they had been a shaping force in my life. With the idea that perhaps this class could strengthen my understanding and appreciation for social identities, I chose to register. Over the course of the semester in Writing and Seeing, I can't say that I developed a passion for exploring social identity. However, I do feel much more knowledgeable on the topic and I am still excited to learn more about identities, whether they be mine or not. I basically went from never writing about social identities (or at least never realizing that I was), to spending an entire semester and 4 substantial essays writing about it, so I can confidently say I've improved my writing regarding identities. It is easier for me to think about how identities are shaped and what effect they have on shaping other things/people, and it is easier for me to articulate this than it has been in the past. One specific reason for this is the multitude of example readings we have been provided each week. Reading numerous other views has helped me to understand what good writing about identity and perspective looks like. I am sure that my writing will continue to grow in the future as I become even more aware of identities and perspectives around me, and I'm glad I got this chance to begin this development in this class.