iThoughts

I know in a lot of my previous blog posts I stated that I feel like I am not a good writer and I don't like to write. Well, I actually do spend a lot of my time writing or typing in my notes app on my iPhone. For some reason I tend to always have something weighing on my mind, whether it's school related, personal, or the weather; something is always on my mind and I think about it all day long and even before I fall asleep. Ever since high school I felt that I should write down what's going through my mind or what's going on in my life at the moment. If it came to me I wrote it down in my notebook, if I didn't have my notebook on me then I'd save it to my notes app. One reason why I started doing this and love it is because I like to look back and read what I wrote yesterday, 2 weeks ago, or even last year. I like to read it and reminisce on what happened that day. Another reason why I do this is because I feel like if I don't then I will have to many thoughts going through my mind at once and I just crash, sorta speak. All in all, I just like to write. If the topic is something I can relate to then I will enjoy writing about it, and will actually write with a purpose and not just to complete the assignment. Am I a bad writer? NO. Am I a great writer? NO. But I am a GOOD WRITER. And I will continue to write, whether it's for my knowledge and memories or for an assignment.

Improvement throughout the Years

I can honestly say my writing skills have improved so much throughout the years. My mom also thinks so too. I talked to my mom yesterday on the phone for about an hour and we started talking about how my classes are going, and how I'm feeling about them. She stopped me while I was talking and said my communication skills have improved and I told her my English class has helped me a lot with that. Basically what I'm trying to say is that, if my mom can see my progress than obviously I really have improved. She mentioned that she's never been a  "great" writer, but her writing has improved as shes aged. Once she said that it hit me that maybe I will take after her. I know my writing isn't perfect and could still use a lot of work, but I know I am not a terrible writer. It has improved over the years and will more than likely improve as I get older. I told my mom that some days I will open the notepad app on my iPhone and just write how I'm feeling and what's going on in my life at the time. She was very surprised and told me doing that will help better my writing as well.

Long story short, this course has really helped me with my writing I believe. Working with different sites, like Wikipedia, has helped me write more properly and with etiquette. The work we do stimulates my mind to work even harder and that helps me write even better. I'm curious to see how far I can test myself to become an amazing writer one day.

Staying Focused

Most of the time when I'm writing I cannot stay focused for some reason. The smallest thing can catch my attention and cause me to get off track with my writing. I like to listen to music when I'm writing because I think it'll help me stay focused a little bit, but I tend to start getting more into the music then my writing. I've tried writing in a closed and quiet place with no distractions around me but then I get bored and can't write. If I'm writing a paper on my laptop I'll start to open up other tabs with YouTube, Twitter, or shopping sites. So I ask myself, how can I work on staying focused? . It takes entirely to long for me to write when I'm not focused.
Because of my lack of focus I feel like it affects my grade because I can't put my all into my writing. I know when your given a topic you can relate to then it's easier for you to stay focused and just write away, but what about the topics that mean nothing to you? How do I focus then? Also when I'm writing and I feel like I can't write anymore because I'm out of stuff to say I'll just get distracted and get up and do something else. I need help with staying focused! :(

Blogs vs. Term Papers

I'm kind of 50/50 with this topic. I like blogs because it gives you a chance to better your writing. I like term papers because once you turn it in and get it back from the teacher you'll get a chance to see what you need to work on and what your strong points are. Once you know your strong and low points with your writing then you can use your blog to help. Writing a nicely detailed term paper takes time and practice, you can use your blog to write about what you'll be writing about in your paper. Using your blog like a brainstorming tool can be very helpful. Typing out all of your ideas and research can help you stay organized. Plus using a blog instead of a notebook to keep your brainstorming ideas is a lot easier to keep up with.

Blogs should be used to be creative and communicate with classmates, etc. Being creative will help a lot to have an open mind when given a term paper assignment. The term paper should reflect the amount of time and effort you put it in. A lot of effort can come from using your blog in a positive way. So in my opinion, I'm not against blogs nor term papers. They can only help you in the long run for future references. I know in my last blog post it seemed like I was totally against blogging and only wanted to write papers like a regular English class, but I've took into consideration how this blog can help me out a lot... and even this Hybrid class. :)

I feel like I'm not getting anywhere..

I feeling like I'm not getting anywhere when it comes to bettering my writing skills. Yes, I know writing blogs is a good helper but I also need a good instructor to push me into progress. I'd rather write an essay paper then keep up with an online blog, website, and this other online stuff. I feel as though that an English class should be writing papers and paragraphs for the teacher to grade and show us what we did wrong in. You know the edit and revise kinda stuff? I'm not saying the stuff I am doing in my current English class is bull, but it's not helping me either. Wikipedia? That is not helping write a formal paper. I have all of these insecurities with my writing already and I feel like I can't conquer them with just writing a blog. Keeping my audience entertained and writing with a purpose are my downfalls with writing as I stated in my previous blogs. I thought I would be able to become more comfortable with it as the semester goes by but as of right now I haven't learned anything. I feel like I'm trying to teach myself and then being graded for absolutely nothing. I get nothing but a headache. I guess you can't expect the unexpected huh?

My Challenges

My challenges as a writer really do reflect in my finished project. Some of my challenges are just simple issues that I have like insecurities with my writing. I don't like to let people read my writings because I feel like it's not up to par with my peers writing. Some challenges that writers face are to be expected and it's a learning experience. Having to use more then common sense is a struggle for some people because you have to actually think for your writing to be successful. Staying organized can also help with writing challenges. I know I have improved a lot when it comes to being organized so I know my writing is improving as well. Using Venn Diagrams and Bubble Outlines are great ways to stay organized when your're brainstorming. I am so used to thinking negatively about my writing that I would not try my hardest and my grade would affect that. That is my biggest challenge that I am trying to overcome. The more I express my challenges I think the more it will help me. We'll see :)

As A Writer

As a writer, I somewhat feel confident with my work. Writing has never been my strong point because it always seems as though I'm always doing something wrong. Whether it's to many run on sentences, using a comma in the wrong place, writing an incomplete sentence, or not staying on topic. I can admit that I am a rambler when it comes to writing. I can ramble on and on and soon the audience will lose interest in my writing. I like to write to inform my audience more than entertaining them. I don't write to entertain my audience. I write to entertain myself if that makes sense. So maybe I should ask myself "How Do I Entertain My Audience Instead of Myself?". I think in order for me to entertain my audience I need to put more effort into my writing.
I need to write with a true "purpose" instead of just writing to complete an assignment. To be honest I am not the kind of person to show emotions towards things, and because of that my writing is affected by it. I need to learn how to add more emotions and show emphasis behind it to entertain my audience. I need to be more confident in my writing and that will help me a lot in the long-run.
I never knew how important formal writing really was until my English class last semester. She basically broke it down to the basics of its importance and that helped me understand that just writing on Facebook/Twitter will not get me anywhere in the future. From that class I became more familiar with writing persuasive and expository papers. They were not perfect when I wrote them, but I understood the difference in just writing to write and writing with structure. I need to know "When To Write With a Purpose?". Do I write with a purpose throughout the whole paper? What if I run out of stuff to say? What if I'm not being myself? What if the audience isn't entertained when I tried really hard? All of these questions are what intimidates me to write. My mom always told me that if I read more then it will help me with my writing and my vocabulary. That can also be a confidence booster for me to engaged in other people's writing to improve my own writing. This semester I hope to end up more comfortable with my writing for audiences all over the world or just personal audiences. "To Entertain" will soon be my strong point and maybe I can start my own blog to entertain audiences, such as teenagers, on daily life crisis.

"How to write in style?" -Vonnegut

The rules by Vonnegut that will be hard for me is "Do not ramble though" and "Have the guts to cut". When I am writing papers/essays I like to write a lot of detail to express the topic, but sometimes I tend to write to much stuff that is not needed. I start to ramble on and on and start writing whatever comes to my mind about the topic. Then when I read over my paper I usually have more detail then needed but if it sounds right then I leave it and don't cut it out. I'd rather leave the extra detail in my paper and not need it then to need it and not have it.

English 101

Testing 123