Thlogging 10

The end is sooooo close I can taste it, but it is not here yet because I haven't turned in my portfolio. Overall, I think this class has really helped my writing and reading ability. In high school, my english teacher was pretty awful at explaining to us what specifically we should do to improve our writing, and this class truly made me more aware of what I need to change and what I'm generally already good at. I'm so glad I've finally had an instructor that gave me specific and constructive comments. I know that all the tips, comments, and everything else that I have learned will only benefit my future writing endeavors.    

As for this week, the Google Doc activity was really useful not only for the numerous answers to my questions but for the answers to other questions. I realized most of us had similar concerns when writing the WPs and it was extremely beneficial to see the answers to some of the small issues I was encountering. It was really great receiving and giving that kind of help to improve our rewriting process. The advice to use the Weebly site was also really valuable. I'm sure I will incorporate the use of creating my own website not only for the portfolio but for other projects as well. I think creating a website is going to be a more fun and attractive way to create a writing portfolio and other projects. This class has been great and I'll miss it for a while.

Thlogging 9

Grammar is an intense topic. There are so many little areas that are within each other that they all kind of just jumble together. For example, the many applications of semi-colons and colons in sentence structures. As always, I appreciate any refreshers and tips I can receive to improve my writing especially with something like grammar. I feel like I start to concentrate so much on the content of what I'm writing and forget to pay attention to little things. Simply listening to the examples of the semi-colons, parallelism, headge language, commas, sentence structure, and flow reminded me of the possible mistakes I have been making in my writing. It will deifinitely help when looking over the writing projects for the portfolio, especially for me because I hate re-reading my own writing which is where I create dumb grammar mistakes. The semi-colon presentation was extremely educational because to be honest, I've never really used semi-colons in my life. I have always been super intimidated of using them incorrectly that I just would not use them at all. Hopefully, I will be able to use them more often from now on. 

The semi-colon topic reminded me of this comedian who briefly talks about semi-colons in emails, and I thought it was sorta, kinda relatable to me because I pretty much feel that same way about semi-colons. Here is the link if anyone wants to watch it, I just thought it was really funny. 

I hope that I can incorporate all of these presentations in my writing portfolio. 

Thlogging 8

We are officially done with all of the Writing Projects! It feels pretty great, although now we have to begin working on the Portfolio and finish up the presentations. WP Numero Tres was pretty stressful because I wanted to create really good genres. I was extremely difficult to look through millions of Gifs and not get distracted(you don't even know). The good part is that throughout the WP, I was laughing really hard and actually enjoyed what I was making. I definitely admire the writers that continuously produce Buzzfeed posts because it is not as easy at it seems and way more time-consuming than I thought.

At first glance, the portfolio seems really complicated and lengthy, but I hope I will be able to learn a lot from it. I know working on this portfolio is going to take a loooong time but I'm sort of looking forward to it, and I am going to try to break it up as much as possible. I hate re-reading my own writing, which is why I have a lot of little, shitty mistakes, and I hope this will allow me to look more deeply into the way I write. I really want to improve my writing by being able to go back and changing it. I also want to pay attention to the flow of my WPs because I rarely do that after writing anything, and I know it is a big part of making the reader understand a piece of writing as easily as possible.  I'm sort of dreading the Portfolio but also enthusiastic about it.

Thlogging 7

I hate it when I can't think of anything to say for my thloggings, so I'll just start blurting everything at once. Thinking of an idea for WP#3 wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I definitely didn't try to force ideas out and instead waited for something interesting to catch my attention. I'm pretty glad that the idea I had wasn't awful and can actually be done. I feel rather hopeful for this writing project and plan to start first thing tomorrow. The comments I received from my classmates were extremely helpful and successfully got me thinking about where I could expand my ideas and consider other aspects. I truly enjoyed reading what they had to say and how I could make my ideas more clear.

I always enjoy the practices when we look at different genres because it reminds me that not every single item from the genre is going to have the same conventions. It allows me to begin thinking about all the different conventions that could be within a genre but don't have to be. I plan to use this little activity in preparation of the two genres that I will be creating. I hope it will help in getting my first order though process started, so that it will be easier to go ahead and actually create the two different genres. I want to de well on this WP, so I'm working hard to start to early instead of leaving it till the end.

PB 3A: Getting Old

As I've stated before, I don't really consider myself a very creative person, therefore thinking of ideas for WP Numero Tres has been considerably difficult for me. It wasn't until class that I became slightly inspired by the idea of making a funny birthday card for an older person, in their sixties or seventies, but then I realized that wasn't enough of a genre I could translate a scholarly article into. However, the birthday card led me to the topic of the emotions people feel when getting older through two different age stages.  I actually found two articles that would somehow go along with the topic titled, Change In Subjective Age Among Older People Over An Eight-Year Follow-Up: 'Getting Older and Feeling Younger?' and Age Differences in Emotion Recognition Between Chinese Younger and Older Adults, both in different areas of psychology. I know I need to choose one, but I want to break both down a little bit more to see which is more related to my topic. 

It is sort of interesting to me, how most children and teens are extremely impatient to become older and gain freedom. As tweens, they feel so much excitement to be eighteen and then to turn the glorious age of twenty-one, but at some point as people get older, most start dreading their birthdays and begin feeling old. Once individuals are in their fifties, sixties, etc, most want to truly ignore how old they are becoming and some will stop saying how old they are turning. The excitement of celebrating another year alive is definitely gone and it nearly all becomes consumed with dread.

Because of this topic of getting older, I decided one of the genres I would like to turn my academic article into is something similar to a Buzzfeed post about turning twenty-one. The audience for Buzzfeed posts are usually individuals in their late teens up to their early thirties. Specifically for my post, the audience will be people in their late teens and twenty-year-olds actually turning twenty-one. The post is going to slightly amusing, informal, probably contain images that are related to the topic, a really interesting title, and so on. All of these are common conventions of these types of post. I'm not still exactly sure what route I'm going to with, either the positive parts of turning twenty-one or the negative parts.

The other genre that I want to turn my academic article into is a personal letter to my grandma wishing her a happy birthday and comforting her about turning eighty-seven years old. The objective of a friendly personal letters is to demonstrate a strong personal connection between the writer and the reader in a way that is more touching because it takes longer to construct that a simple text or email. Even though personal letters can be sent to complain about a company or something similar to that, this letter is to convey a specific emotion. Because personal letters can be sent to anyone, the audience is rather large, although younger generations don't send personal letters as often as older generations.

I'm still wondering if these genres will be enough to satisfy the requirements of WP #3. 

Thlogging 6

WP Numero Dos is over and done with but we now continue to Writing Project Numero Tres. I do think I could have worked harder on WP#2 and done a better job, however I think I improved the overall flow and purpose of the essay. I do not think my thesis was the best thing I ever wrote but I also don't think it was horrible. It could have been more debatable, and I'm just glad it is over.

I'm pretty nervous about WP #3 because I'm not a very creative person and needing to make something up on my own is going to be pretty fucking difficult for me. I hope that I get some cool ideas that will allow me to be inspired instead of dreading the whole thing. I really want to do a good job and be satisfied with the work I turned and not be bored throughout all of it.

The online class was definitely a new experience for me, so that was preeetty interesting. I enjoyed "going to class" while being in the comfort of my own bed. Except, I had too many distractions and I'm not discipline enough to pay attention virtually. I much prefer the experience of listening to a teacher and having that interaction. It was a little crazy when I first logged in with all the questions, comments, concerns, and all that jazz. After twenty minutes though, I got it together and was able to follow the outline pretty easily.

Questions on Bob Ross

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

Bob Ross' move when explaining his thought process is being so dam specific. He starts off by naming a very particular paint color, paintbrush, and amount of paint, etc. 

• 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?  

Ross tells you when to get more paint and how, "pull the paint through, and wiggle it", the type of stroke you should be performing, and how many types you should be doing. The Disney Artisits refer to their artsy jargon-texture, diffuse light, pressure, distinct, subdued, etc. 

• 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 Disney Artist did their own thing while painting the same tree. One artist was really creepy and reminded me of like black magic. Another one was more abstract, he says he wanted to keep it simple and not add many details. Each of the artists had their own goal of what they wanted to present the tree as-decorative, detailed trunk, textural for movement, architectural.  

Journal Questions

Q1. So, in the end, how’d your WP2 paper go? What were you happy with?  What weren’t you? Why?
I tried really hard to improve the overall flow on my paper, and connect paragraphs and sentences to each other. I'm happy I focused on a specific similarity and difference between academic and non-academic texts instead of going all over the place like WP#1.  I still wasn't one-hundred percent satisfied with my thesis,  I was continually going back and forth between two different ones.

Q2. Which 2 or 3 comments that you received yesterday were the most helpful for you?  Why?
A helpful comment was when I was told to connect my quotes and add more analyzing on my part. It was great that was pointed out because I wasn't planning on explaining the quotes much more. Another comment given to me was being more specific on with my thesis but in the end I still didn't love my thesis.

Thlogging 5

PB 2B was intense, long, and dull, however it has made me waaaaay more comfortable in being able to identify moves. I definitely was confused on how to format the PB without being too monotonous and  lengthy, even though I don't think I did a great job on either of those things. My goal for the WP Numero Dos is to separate the work into everyday of the weekend instead of just doing it all in one suuuuuper long sitting, and hopefully that will result into a much better WP.

I thought "How to Read Like a Writer" by Mike Bunn was helpful in starting to question what I'm reading. At the end, I reaaaaallllllyy liked how he went back to the beginning of the essay and started revealing all the thoughts, moves, and questions we should be recognizing and experiencing from now on to Read Like a Writer. 

Legit how I felt...

The activity where we all came up with verbs that weren't "says" was really great because I know I definitely overuse "reveals, states, and writes." It was good to learn new vocabulary for the same word because I plan to put them to use for the WP. The brackets activity was also aaaaamazing because I'm pretty sure I have never even used brackets in my writing. I never even realized when, where, and how other writers used them until now. Both of these tips are going to be well-used in my WP.  

I'm gunna be honest and say I'm not super excited to start this WP, but I do want to do well on it.

PB 2B: Making a move

Do I have moves? I'd like to have moves when I write. I wonder if my moves are obvious to everyone but me? Moves in writing can be really small, for example, using the phrase "such as" to start an example, or they can be large and visual, for instance using block quotations instead of adding a regular quote within the text. In the articles we have read, the authors have used numerous amounts of moves, because they are great writers trying to help others become great writers. Even though some of the moves that I chose are kind of obvious, I really liked that I had a reaction to the move, and I would like for my writing to produce reactions or emotions.

In the They Say, I Say appendix, some of the templates were common because we see and use them in most writing and some are slightly less familiar, at least for me. For instance, in "Navigating Genres" by Kerry Dirk, to explain a quote, Dirk starts the first sentence after the quote with, "In other words..." Dirk uses the same phrase at least four other times and uses similar phrases even more in his twelve page essay. Using this move and ones similar to it, allows the author to be very specific about what the reader should have concluded from the quote, especially because it is followed by another sentence that analyzes the meaning of the quote even more. In "Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing," Peter Elbow uses phrases to introduce ongoing debates, "When I celebrate freewriting and fast exploratory writing...it seems to many listeners as though I'm celebrating holidays from thinking." Elbow's decision to use these phrases informs the reader of the positions other academics might have on freewriting and why Elbow's opinion is contradictory but valid. He further explains how his position is advantageous because it includes two kinds of thinking. Some of the less familiar templates, are phrases that I very rarely use in my writing but I take notice when I see them in readings.

In "So What? Who Cares?" the author uses two templates in one sentence, "When pressed, for instance, most academics will tell you that their lectures and articles matter...Yet many academics fail to identify...." The author uses this template to identify exactly who has an opposing opinion on this subject and how it is not accurate. Similarly, another move the author made was using questions to introduce objections to his own opinion informally, for example, "Isn't it obvious that everyone cares about such problems? Does it really need to be spelled out?" The use of asking questions-a reader might have-in writing, enables the author to clearly identify why it is important to follow their position. Finally, in "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)" by Janet Boyd, she uses a template to add an explanation about what she just wrote, "More importantly, you can now see that when I told you at the beginning that you are already in possession...I wasn't feeding you a bunch of bull." Boyd sums up her essay without using the unoriginal, In conclusion, a phrase that I very much still use. These three moves aren't phrases that I include in my writing, but should definitely be incorporated.

These next moves are ones that I really felt strongly about, whether is was with dislike or appreciation. Right off the bat, Spaces for Writing has a very clear visual move, which I'm calling The Comic Book. The authors use a comic book format to allow their audience-college students-to understand concepts in an unusual format by not only reading a text but also seeing visual graphics. Even though, the visuals are helpful, they sort of distract from the text and are kind of excessive. Personally, the comic book format was more annoying than helpful, because all I wanted to do was look at the images and not read the bubbles. Kerry Dirk's "Navigating Genres" used moves that I loved. Dirk started off his essay with a joke, even though it wasn't necessarily the funniest joke I've heard, it caught my attention right away because it was unexpected in my usual college readings. His joke effectively hooked, me into the essay and made me wonder what his point was going to be. Then, Dirk wrote out a ransom letter scenario that was another really funny move. This scenario truly allowed me to understand his point of genres and conventions without being extremely academic and monotonous. Both of Dirk's moves were plainly successful because he knows his audience is going be young college students who are tired of reading dull essays and want to obtain information in entertaining ways. In "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis," Laura Bolin Carroll starts off by telling the reader to imagine a scenario of the first day of class. Carroll's move is great in capturing my attention because I did experience that exact scenario and can easily relate. Her move is successful in gaining my interest and eagerly continuing to read the rest of her essay to learn the purpose of the scenario. I recognized both Dirk and Carroll's use of hooks as moves because in my personal writing my hooks are awful, and I deeply appreciate when other people include great hooks.  Finally, Anne Lamott's move is in the title of the chapter, "Shitty First Drafts." Lamott's move of using a curse word gives the reader an impression they will be reading something that isn't formal and can be relatable. She continues her writing by adding more examples that anyone who was ever written anything can connect to because they've experienced it.

I hope to use more of these moves in my writing, except for in a comic book format, at least not anytime soon.

Thlogging 4

I feel like we did so much this week, I don't really even know what to write about. I found the Murder activity to be really interesting because many of us haven't had any training writing newspaper articles or dead body reports, but we still knew how to do it. Even if we didn't know the exact jargon, we knew enough to get the idea across. I also liked the definitions Janet Boyd provided-at the end of her article-for rhetoric, audience, rhetorical situation, genre, etc. Her definitions revealed how easily we have been using rhetoric since we started writing with out even knowing what it meant.

I enjoyed the introduction of writers' moves, but I'm still trying to figure out how to identify the different moves with a reading. While reading the Starting Lines piece and answering the questions, I was sort of stumped when it came to be specific about the moves she used as a writer.  I understood the moves in lesson, about how you can use hashtags for a specific audience and whatnot, but I still had trouble identifying the Starting Lines' writers' moves. I'm sure with a little bit more practice, I'll be able to understand it better. 

It was pretty cool identifying the different types of evidence used for the different types of disciplines. The Finding Evidence article was very in depth about all of the different ways to find evidence, and I'm sure it is going to be a good resource for future PBs and WPs.  

Great week, all.

PB 2A: Importance of Evidence

Science research papers aren't the world's most entertaining type of reading; however, they can be informative in a dull, academic way. Most people go their entire life without writing a scientific research paper but can still be able to identify one when they see it because of the conventions within the genre. The science research paper generator, SCIgen, and an actual science research paper, "Personality Characteristics and Choice of Academic Major: Are traditional stereotypes obsolete?", contain similar but varying conventions. The most important aspect of the scientific research paper is the main study/procedure because without it, the paper would have zero validation. 

The science research paper SCIgen produced contained many similar qualities of the actual paper, "Personality Characteristics and Choice of Academic Major: Are traditional stereotypes obsolete?". The authors for the papers know their audience are scholars, professors, etc, and present the information with academic language and a formal tone. Both of the papers contain titles, a summary at the beginning, references, writing that is broken up into sections, for instance, implications, results, conclusion, etc. 

These papers also have a specific study that was conducted, and the study's results to prove the thesis of the statement. Similarly, the papers use tables/figures to further support their evidence, for example, the SCIgen paper has five different figures throughout the paper to show a model of their study and the results. 

However, "Personality Characteristics and Choice of Academic Major: Are traditional stereotypes obsolete?", uses three tables at the end of the paper to verify the conclusion of the entire paper. 

In comparison, the SCIgen paper is a random mess that doesn't make sense because it is generated to be amusing and not educational. It's supposed to demonstrate how following conventions can result in an appropriate-looking paper that has no actual context. On the other hand, "Personality Characteristics and Choice of Academic Major: Are traditional stereotypes obsolete?", is a scientific research paper from an academic journal that actually is trying to demonstrate how students shouldn't choose a major based on job stereotypes.

Most importantly, scientific research papers include plenty of evidence and statements that are concluded from other research to support the main argument. Many individuals would say the thesis/argument is the most important part of the research paper but without the evidence and study, the thesis is nothing.

In "Personality Characteristics and Choice of Academic Major: Are traditional stereotypes obsolete?", the authors state, "College students select their major field of study for many reasons. One of those is the stereotypes that students hold of particular occupations (Noel, Michael & Levas, 2003; Schlee, Harich, Kiesler & Curren, 2007). " The authors can declare this statement as a fact because it has already been proven by another group of scholars and they can just cite that research. By using different types of evidence throughout the paper, the authors of "Personality Characteristics and Choice of Academic Major: Are traditional stereotypes obsolete?" validate their thesis not only with their own study but with the research of other knowledgable academics. The evidence within research papers also allows for the authors to expand on their thesis. In the case of this research paper, the authors use the findings of their research to advise educators how they can change students' perceptions about specific careers, "Given that many undergraduates do not have an accurate idea about exactly what major they would like to pursue, every effort should be made to inform them about their available choices as early as possible." Thesis statements are important factors in research papers but without good evidence and analysis the paper wouldn't be reliable or very scientific. 

Scientific papers are supposed to be informative and persuasive even if they are boring, and they inform with their evidence, not with their thesis. They persuade with their analysis, not with their thesis. Theses are always going to be important parts of any essays, but the evidence and research is what gives scientific research papers their technical, analytical recognition.

Thlogging 3

The first Writing Project was due! The project builders were really helpful in knowing what to anticipate for the the writing project but it was still really intense. I wanted to choose a topic that would allow me to have a lot to describe and analyze, but I don't know if I did that with out getting off track. I don't really think my thesis was all that great and "debatable" enough. In the end, I think I could have spent a lot more time on the final draft and done a better job. I really enjoyed doing the highlighting activity with our rough drafts because it visually demonstrated all the components to my essay and what I needed more or less of. Similarly, the reverse outline was helpful in pointing out what was still missing in my writing project and reminding my how useful outlines in general can be for writing. In the future, I'm going to try to do both of these for more of my essays and not write an essay all in one sitting.

I attempted to incorporate the advice from Responding-Really Responding-to Other Students' Writing in my feedback to my peers' writing. I made sure to ask questions, offer as much criticism as praise, tried to specific, and give some advice. The comments that were given to me were really helpful in revealing to me where the reader might get confused among other things. Overall, these past couple of weeks have been extremely beneficial in improving my personal writing skills in numerous ways.

Thlogging 2

Because thought blogging is more of a free-writing(I used a hyphen), I'm not planning on writing in chronological order of what we have learned and will probably end up going backwards or something. I found the last two readings, Shitty First Drafts and Responding-Really Responding-to other Students' Writing(the title includes a dash) to be extremely helpful for moving forward in class. Shitty First Drafts allowed me to truly feel normal when I write really bad first drafts and when I start writing anything. This sentence basically sums up any time that I begin writing anything, "The right words and sentences do not come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time." Then, Responding-Really Responding-to other Students' Writing was really helpful in informing me what exactly should be my goals when commenting on my peers' writing because most of the time, I have no idea what I should be saying and what is probably too mean. Both of the readings included awesome tips for future drafts and peer comments. 

The hyphen and dash tip was a pretty cool grammar refresher and I would appreciate more of those once in a while. I liked when we got more specific on conventions and how they can be visual, quantitative, content-based, and written-language based. It will definitely help for dissecting the genre I choose in my writing project. Revisiting vocabulary from the beginning of class was useful in keeping all the words we have been learning from class and readings in my head. While writing the genre generators project builder, I struggled to start it but while writing it was easy to keep going. After class on Wednesday though, I realized I could have gone much deeper into conventions and what they mean. After the comic strip activity, I'd like to think I will be more thorough in my analyzation of genre conventions. 

PB 1B: GENREators

Memes, science research papers, and comic strips don't have much in common, except for having their own random generators and being individual genres. After spending some time with all of these generators, I found them highly amusing and amazed at how much randomness can appear. Even though each of these generators produced random science papers or comic strips, they all still had things in common, which I guess is where conventions in genres come in.

Meme images are a new concept in our culture, they have not been around for decades but are extremely popular. These hilarious captions pop up everywhere and anywhere, during award shows, political debates, etc. They could be about anything from politics to celebrities to world hunger, most of the time they are amazingly hilarious, even if they are about serious topics.

An ideal meme is about current cultural events, its witty, entertaining, hilarious (if it can make nearly anyone laugh, it is can up there on best memes). Memes usually contain one to two pictures (that are already known) and two to three short lines that are sort of related to the picture. While I would like to think most people know what a meme is, if you don't, the home page of the generator website gives you tons of examples where you can probably think of your own meme after just a couple of minutes exploring, and it allows you to make a meme with a few easy steps. On the meme generator website, you can choose an image that is commonly used in memes like the Willy Wonka image, the Dos Equis man, or you can upload your own picture of whatever you'd like.

 

Then, the generator instructs you to insert a top text and a bottom text and that completes your customized meme.

As a result, even if you aren't familiar with memes, this generator shows you some of the conventions in this genre that will allow you to make your own image like a professional.

The random comic generator is especially great because the user does not have to input any information, you can just click a button and read funny comic strips.

The generator produces three squares with drawings of the same two guys have some sort of funny conversation within thought bubbles.

 From the random comic generator, I can recognize the conventions within this genre. Comics are separated by different rectangle shapes that contain drawings of characters that are partaking in some type of conversation. They are for people who want to read something that isn't really formal or studios, it's more for relaxing and passing time. The comic strips in the generator are mostly funny, but being amusing is only a convention for comics not a rule.

As someone who has never written or read an official scientific research paper, I found the science generator extremely enlightening. After generating a bunch of "scientific papers" with just imputing names and skimming through a few, I recognized some of the conventions and format for this genre.
Every paper started off with a centered, bold title and the names of the authors, then it is broken into specific sections: summary, introduction, model, etc.

These science papers include different types of graphs called figures with explanations to each and all end with many references.

The science research generator has allowed for someone who has never read a scientific paper because they aren't in a science field and wouldn't have a reason to write or read one, the ability to identify some of the common components within these papers, or the conventions.


Every one of these generators is helpful in revealing the conventions each genre can contain.

PB 1A: Movie Reviews

As someone who considers herself a movie enthusiast, I very deeply enjoy reading movie reviews mostly because I like hearing other people voice their thoughts on a movie that I liked or disliked. My favorite movie reviews are the ones that convince me to watch a movie that usually isn't a genre I would consider without revealing the entire plot.

For the most part, movie reviews can be found on different websites (Rotten Tomatoes) or newspapers (The New York Times) written by well known critics or bloggers for people that aren't sure whether a movie is worth watching or spending money on. Movie reviews can be brief, contain some sort of summary of the movie, and positive or negative adjectives depending on the opinion of the writer. Typically, and I say typically because we are talking about conventions here, movie reviews are brief because if they would include too much of the plot then the reader would know too much about the movie and not bother watching it. Brief reviews include a couple of sentences summarizing the film then ending their review by truly recommending or discouraging readers to watch the movie. This blogger on Rotten Tomatoes summarizes some of the film while using positive adjectives to demonstrate his enjoyment of the movie and ending by telling the readers to go see it. 

 In some reviews, the title will reveal whether the critic approves of the movie or doesn't. 

Using the title to quickly reveal whether the review will be positive or negative is the fastest way for a reader to decided if the review is worth reading. When I read reviews, I like reading one positive review of a movie then one negative review, and some reviews are slightly too long for me to bother with especially when they aren't firm on their opinion of the movie. 

Longer movie reviews will start off with a couple of paragraphs mentioning the star of the film or the director and some of their history in Hollywood, then go onto a detailed summary of the movie that uses specific quotes, all the while using adjectives that will hint at their opinion of the film. Jeff Labreque from Entertainment Weekly starts of his review by mentioning some of the protagonist's earlier films, "Why are people always risking their lives for Matt Damon? Okay, perhaps always is a bit much, but in Saving Private Ryan, a unit of brave G.I.s who barely survived the storming of Normandy in 1944 had to sacrifice their lives to rescue one average man whose brothers had been killed." By starting off his review with that broad question, a reader begins to be curious about whether the writer liked or disliked the movie therefore, must continue to finish reading the review until it is clear. ScreenRant writer Ben Kendrick waits until the last paragraph of his review to be very specific of his opinion of The Martian, "Regardless, Scott has produced an entertaining rescue-thriller film, that takes cue from classic man vs. nature stories to tell a unique tale of one person's day to day survival millions of miles away as an entire planet rallies to bring him home... it's hard to dismiss the stirring story of humanity and triumph that Scott has delivered." 

Regardless of short or long, movie reviews are a great way to be introduced to new movie genres that you aren't familiar with yet you might still enjoy very much. 

Thlogging 1

As student, I have always viewed writing classes as boring, formal, and focused on correct grammar and format. All of my high school teachers wanted my essays to contain a thesis, backed with three or more paragraphs of evidence and analysis supporting that thesis, and a conclusion. I hated writing those essays, and by the time I was half way into writing the essay, I would sort of forget what I was saying or defending. I one hundred percent never considered who I was writing for or what I was trying to accomplish. I was just writing an essay on the topic I was given and hoping that if I followed this specific format well enough I would receive an A.

As far as genres go, I only ever considered them in relation to music or movies, not ever in writing. However, after this week, I see genres in everything. I sort of recognize I have been following conventions in situations that I never considered. For example, this summer I had to write a statement for the Financial Aid office, and having never written one before, I Googled it. After some research, I found that most statements for schools are supposed to be short, to the point, and specific. These statements are a genre that has its own conventions, and I wrote one without even realizing they were in their own category.

For the rest of the quarter and my writing career, I am very excited to do more free-writing that will allow for my thoughts to wander instead of always following a strict outline or format.

Something about me...

Hey everyone, my name is Jocelyn Ramirez. I am from South Los Angeles, one mile away from USC. My parents are from the a rural town in Durango, Mexico. I have one older sister and two older brothers. I adore my family and already miss my mom, but I would't miss the experience of living in college for anything in the world.
During high school I really tried exploring many things to try to find something that I would be passionate about. I was part of a volunteering club, treasurer of my class, team member at Business@School, and intern for the California Science Center. As I graduated, I still didn't find anything that really excited me, therefore I entered UCSB as undeclared. I truly hope to find more opportunities here that will help in my journey to find some of my passions. My goal is to have a career where I am excited to go to work everyday and never have to dread Mondays because I love what I do so much. When I get older, I hope to travel the world and ideally go to every continent except for maybe Antartica, unless the opportunity arises in which case I'd go.
As for my free time, I enjoy watching my favorite team the Green Bay Packers every Sunday or Monday or Thursday. I totally understand that it is extremely weird for a girl from Los Angeles to love a team from Wisconsin but it isn't my fault, that is just what I've been watching since I can remember. I dream about going to Green Bay and watching a game on Lambeau Field. Other things that I enjoy doing are hanging out with my two nephews Aidan and Aaron, who was named after the Green Bay Packers' quarterback. They are the funniest kids ever and are always ready to make me laugh.

Funny picture of us

Thanks for getting to know a little bit about me even though I probably bored you with football talk.