One Bite at a Time

After reading through most of my colleagues blogs I have found so many similarities between all of us. The desire to be better, is there. As students we are constantly learning. Constantly seeing where we fall short and showing how we can do better. I believe that some of us can be harder on ourselves, which is definitely the category I fall into. I love what Kayla Sheppard said in her blog post, “I have learned that writing is not perfect and take years upon years to master. I shouldn't beat myself up for not writing the perfect paper. That probably doesn't exist anyway.” She is right it probably doesn’t exist, but that doesn’t keep her or the rest of us from trying.We strive for perfection understanding that if we strive to do our best we can rest easy knowing that we have done everything we can do. I’d like to also point out another colleague of mine R.Mckenzie. “This class has helped prepare me what is coming in future classes, helped me realize what may be expected of me, and to continually stretch myself to do just a little better." What rings so true to me is the last part of this quote, “..stretch myself to do just a little better.”. That is what we are all doing here, being in school learning, falling, getting back up again, and trying. My mom has always told me, “you can only eat the elephant one bite at a time.”. First, I imagine that visual and am a bit disturbed, but then I realize how true this is. We have to slow down and remember we are striving to be better one bite at a time. Clearly, we are not capable of eating an entire elephant in one bite, so why do we consistently expect perfection, when the point isn’t to be perfect, but to be better? I think I have rambled on long enough, so in my last post for this class I would like to remind my colleagues to only eat that elephant one bite at a time.  

Learning to love writing...again

Throughout the past weeks I have been challenged to become a better writer. I have tediously erased, re-worded, and re- formatted trying to write something I could be proud of. I think for me this class has brought out the writer in me. This class has brought life to an art form I had forgotten I loved.  I love putting words to the mess in my mind. I love researching, questioning, and debating ideas in my mind. This class while challenging, has reminded of all the writing I have in me. This class has also showed me the world of reading I have yet to read. I believe everyone has a writer in them, whether it be professionally or personally and I believe this class truly pushed those who wanted that push. I came into this class open minded, knowing that I had some basic understanding of writing, but I had no idea how basic my understanding was. I very much thank Professor Hamon, for pushing, challenging, and replying to my nonsense emails. It may be time to close the chapter on this class, but it is most definitely the start to a world of writing for me.

Kanye West on the presidential ballot?

“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States,” 

That is what Kanye West tweeted on July 4th, 2020. Yes, you did read that right Kanye has decided very late in the game to run for President. Now Mr. West is known for pulling stunts throughout his career, which causes people to question is this for real? I will say yes and no. Yes, he is running for president, but there is a bunch of huge no's in this political news. While he may be running for President, in some states he is not eligible  to be on the ballot. He also has absolutely no experience in politics except for his most recent songs about the government. Which while they have a catchy beat, I personally do not see how that could remotely help his campaign. (Although I'd imagine his campaigns would be a huge hit with those who like to party).Kanye West may be running for President,  but honestly his name on the ballot holds about as much weight as seeing Popeye on there....funny but not a viable option.

Wyke, Michael. https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/07/kanye-west-is-running-for-president Accessed July 5, 2020.

Take a moment (Post 11)

Texting is arguably the most popular way to connect with people in the year 2020. We know that texting is a form of writing, but I would like to dive into and dissect how texting works for us. If you went into your messages right now you would see a list of people you have recently texted. Typically this list is categorized by most recent. We are then able to tap on the conversation we were having with someone, and see exactly who said what and when. Typically the sender and receiver are in different colors so their is no confusion on who said what. We are then able to reply to someone, when replying we are have our own spell check that typically helps us correctly write a word (or it causes you to say something completely off topic...not that that's ever happened to me). We are also able to add emojis, which allows expression to be conveyed. Then we hit the send button and there is our message, just waiting to be replied to. We text every single day, not noticing the ease we are given when texting. There are so many moving parts when we text, but the creators of the software painstakingly made these programs to add ease to the life of the user. I think it's safe to say that when we are presented something every single day it becomes normal, nothing special, but when you take a moment to see how far we have come in technology to be able to have conversation even when we are all alone....is a beautiful thing. 

Get Organized

We all have a certain way we organize our thoughts, especially when it comes to writing an academic paper. For me, writing an outline is my go to method for organizing my thoughts. By writing an outline I am able to create a list of how I am going to write my paper. This especially helped when I was writing my last paper. Sometimes when writing the words flow, other times I find myself at a complete loss for words. That is when an outline is so handy. It allows me to look at how I wanted to write this paper, what specific points I wanted to talk about, as well as allowing me to stay on track with where all of my thoughts go. There is always more than one way to organize your thoughts, it really is all about what works for you. I was reading some blogs and found another way to organize documents. Mr. McKenzie (a fellow student) wrote about planning his own papers, and I absolutely loved this idea.This is what he says about organizing his papers, 

         To properly write an academic paper takes planning, lots of planning.  I like to use 3x5 cards to write down notes, thoughts, ideas and the ever important Thesis Statement.  I will organised them in an attempt to make the ideas flow in a manner that makes sense.  I'll add some and throw some cards out. Add some quotes and references.  After all that, I'll fill in any blank places

Note Cards?! I have never thought about doing this before. The idea of being able to write down certain parts of the paper and then physically organising them is such a new concept for me. I definitely plan on trying this method for my next paper and see if this is an even better fit for me!

Works Cited

R.Mckenzie.The Life and Times of R.McKenzie.

https://qc1034.blogspot.com/2020/07/post-8-your-main-problems-with-academic.html

Am I Doing This Right? MLA Format.

When starting this course I felt comfortable with writing. Now I am not saying I am perfect, but my high school professor for English was one that wanted us to be able to think and write for ourselves. He truly wanted us to be prepared for college,and I honestly felt prepared. That is until I heard the dreaded words MLA format. I am sure I have heard that phrase thrown around a time or two, but I don’t believe I ever had to write in that format. Needless to say I was lost in Mordor, with a powerful ring, and absolutely no idea where to take this ring so that I can destroy it. (Sorry guys I binged Lord Of The Rings for about the millionth time this past week). I felt like I had fairly strong documents, but the MLA format was causing so many issues, simply because I did not know how to format correctly. I went to my brother and explained my issue, he understood because he had been in my same position years before when he was in college. Thankfully, he came back to me with a pocket manual in hand. “A Pocket Style Manual” by Diana Hacker, has been my saving grace for learning MLA format. This Manual has so covers everything from Grammar, to something called Chicago Papers ( I clearly haven’t gotten to that part yet). With this handbook in hand I feel confident that I can write a paper, analyze said paper and get the grade I worked so hard for. I highly recommend this manual to anyone who feels a bit lost when it comes to writing. I want to also attach a link for this manual, check it out, it may be your saving grace as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Style-Manual-Fifth/dp/031266480X/ref=asc_df_031266480X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=344109148067&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18409134783832646294&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1015270&hvtargid=pla-761199139824&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=69543897312&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=344109148067&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18409134783832646294&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1015270&hvtargid=pla-761199139824