I found surprising that I received a lot of collaboration of my peers. I appreciate their comments and I feel very happy because now I have an audience. With this project I realized that I can write in English (not very well) but I can improve with practice and with the feedback of my peers. Also, I enjoy the writing process because what we saw this past weeks in the course, we had the opportunity to experience it.
I think the most challenging for me was to start writing. When I began, the ideas started to flow. But it was hard to get to start on first place. Also I feel frustrated because 1200 words were a lot for me and I think I never going to reach them. First, I finish my essay and my ideas when it has like 600 words. It was the half of what the instructions said. Now on, It will become less frustrating because I know for sure that I can write more words than I imagine. The most critical part of the writing process, for me, was before I wrote my project, because I did not know how to start. The questions of the discussions and some writing journals helped me a lot, because I get my theme from there. If I were invited to teach someone else something about writing, I would tell him to start writing whatever it is in his mind. Does not matter if the writing, or the sentences, or the paragraphs are in order. The important thing is to write down all the ideas and then you can revise it alone or with a collaboration team. The important thing is to not be afraid of do it wrong, because we are learners. I think this course seem to value reflection and reflective writing, because we have to read again and again our texts and reflect about them to know if our audience is getting the idea of what we want to say. Also, because we read our peers writings and we have to reflect about them, so we can help them improve.
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I think drafting is when you put all of your ideas together on paper to let them flow. I start to write and until I finish with all my ideas, I make a break for some hours. Then I start to write again and begin to arrange the sentences and paragraphs, so they can have an order.
I see differences from my peers, because I used to draft usually at one time or one day, and some of them say they draft in one or two days. I think I agree with them that we learn to draft in school and that is not necessary to draft in a perfect way, meanwhile all of the ideas are written. Then you can proceed to revise. When I was in school I used to write a lot of reports for projects and practices I had. And first, I like to brainstorm and start to write even if I did not know how to begin, because then the ideas start to flow. You can read your draft again and start to polish it. Now I have a job, when I am going to write an email, also I start to write down my ideas and then I read it again to see if something is missing and to see if my audience is going to noticed what I am asking for. In my opinion, this is drafting. When I was studying my B.S. abroad by six months I did not know I would find some culture differences. In the country where I live, people is very warm and we are used to hug and caress each other. Some day I saw a mother with her beautiful baby walking on the street, and I approach to them and touch the baby’s cheek and told the mother that her baby was beautiful. The woman stared at me a little bit annoyed, but I immediately apologized. I feel embarrassed because in my country is very common, but I understood that is not the same in others countries.
At the school I was studying abroad, the restrooms were used by women and men indistinctly. Each toilet was closed like a closet so they gave you some privacy. But in my country that is very weird, because restrooms are only for women or only for men. They are not mixed. In my country school mates are used to greet with one kiss and a hug. And in the country I was studying abroad people greet with two or three kisses on the cheeks. At first I was confused, but then I get used to it It is important to know that in other countries your customs are different and they can be misunderstood. Sometimes you get embarrassed but is part of the learning process and is very interesting. I think my outfit, makeup, and my manners are really an expression of my culture, my gender and my age. Because I dress up like on TV, series and fashion magazines tell to. About this I choose what it fits me the best, but I am guided most by the fashion tendencies. I am a lot alike about peers and friends of my same age. If one of my friends make a recommendation about a product I will try it for sure because I want to test what it is so wonderful about it. Also if I like how a friend dress, I want to try some clothes or accessories similar as hers.
My behaviors and practices are too much like my identity because I use to talk and behave as females should to: not speaking bad words, using the proper clothes, and sitting in the right way. In this days women are more integrated at work. I am the only woman in my work space, but they treat me like a lady because the society marks it that way. They do not expect from me that I behave like a man only because they are a majority. Also I go to church on Sunday, because of my religion, so it is also part of my identity. In my society is important to be member of a club, because it is important the status that you have. Also it is important to attend social parties and events to be part of something. Values talks a lot about our identity because the majority of my circle share the same values as I do. People around me thinks very similar as me and we share some beliefs too. For people of my age is important that man acts as a gentlemen and women like a ladies. My dietary reflects a lot of my identity, because all of my family and friends eat the same food I used to eat. We like the same restaurants and usually we choose the same plates. We share also the same hygiene care because we are use to take a shower every day and our clothes are always clean and neat. Also the mealtimes are exactly the same in all my country. The variety of food changes from north to south of my country but is almost the same. My region reflects my cultural identity because we behave very similar. The north of my country share similar cultural events, and are different from the south. We dress in a similar way, eat the same kind of food, and have similar kind of events. We are very similar in a lot of ways because we share the same country and the same continent but nonetheless we are very different depending on what region we are. When I was studying abroad, I was misunderstood by a mom, because in my country we are used to touch a baby’s cheeks and tell the mother that her baby is beautiful. When I make this kind of gesture in the country I were studying, the woman looked at me a little bit annoyed. I apologize immediately and I did not do it again. Also, in my country is very normal to greet people hugging them, and I get noticed that in some countries they are not used to hug. The discussion helps me notice that I generate ideas in similar ways others persons do. Usually I generate ideas when I am getting sleep or right after I wake up in the morning. That happens because is when my mind is clear. Some peers talk about making exercise sessions before start generating ideas, and I agree with them, because I think is the same result as mine: to clear our minds before start thinking.
Also I read a comment that says that music is a distraction, and I think that way too because the house where I was raise up always was quiet, so I used to concentrate more when I am in a similar environment. I agree with some peers that we search in the Internet to seek for ideas that helps us inspirate to generate our own ideas. As an alternative way to generate ideas, a peer said that is good to make some brainstorming, write it down and make some filters to the ideas until you come with the best one. I think this can be useful too, but it depends on what you are looking for. If it is a team work, I think is good to make some brainstorming first. Writing in my life has played an important role since I was a kid. When I start writing, I like to tell fantasy stories that I imagined. In high school I continue to write stories, plays, and a diary. As a grown up, I left aside telling stories, but I still write a lot on my work. Every task I have I prefer to write it down, and also I write e-mails to our suppliers and company peers.
I like my previous writing experiences, because I enjoy too much writing my stories. In some ways they prepared me to this course because I practiced a lot in school. But the cons are that I left behind writing since I graduated seven years ago. I hope I can write a book in the future. A fantasy book for children. I think my previous writing and school help me to develop some writing skills but I have to practice a lot, because I did not write a long time ago. Also I want to improve my writing skills in English, because I want to write my book in this language. I hope to gain from this writing course practice and learn from others point of view. My expectations for this course are that I can improve my English writing, and makes my ideas flow. I want to get involved in this course so I can learn the most I can. From other members of the course I hope their get interested on my writings so they can give me feedback to improve my writing. In my opinion, rhetoric means persuade. And to persuade someone to take an action or to believe what you are thinking, it has to be a proper scenario by words or a physical atmosphere. Therefore I think that the rhetorical situation is very important when you want to write rhetorically, because you have to take readers into the mood, so they can have the same viewpoint as you.
My most recent writing experience where I used rhetoric was when I get married at the beach. The purpose of the message was to invite our family and friends to our beach wedding. We had to be really rhetoric because we knew that a destination wedding is hard to attend, because of the guests’ jobs, babies, kids, etc. So we had to create a Facebook page where we set the rhetorical situation, creating the right atmosphere: photos of the hotel, of the beach, and images with the airlines offers, so our guests can buy their tickets at a lower price. We had to write every time we can to motivate them to book their trip so they can be with us on that very special moment. We had to use all the multimedia we have access. I think understanding the meaning of rhetoric and rhetoric situation is going to help me for my future writing projects, because I am going to focus on the audience, and the context to persuade readers to believe what I am telling on my writing and to empathize with the things I want to say. Rhetorical knowledge is listed first on the WPA Outcomes because of its importance when we are writing. I think it is the most important because we write to share, to persuade, to make the readers feel and see what is in our minds. So we have to put them in the same context that we are, so they can feel the same way and really understand what we want to say and why we want to say it. I think is interesting that writers collaborate together to write, because they can help one another to bring more ideas or how to express something that the other one want but can not do it in the proper way. The thing that is pitiful is that sometimes, only one gets the credit and the other stays anonymous.
I find collaborating on my writing exciting, because I think I can learn to much from other persons and other points of view instead only mine. If it is something that is going to help me, I will enjoy it. I think the WPA Outcomes values the “collaborative and social aspects of the writing process” because collaboration is everywhere, and we are not alone in this world. In school or in work we have to collaborate a lot of times with our peers to make some projects, to give ideas to each other, to split the work you have to turn over. So it is very important to know how to collaborate well with the others. If we collaborate with each other with our writings, I think we are going to improve a lot more rather than alone. I think that reflection about a complete piece of writing, help us noticed if we truly tell what we wanted to. If we really transmit what we wanted and to the right audience. I think writing is a process where you write and you have to read it again and again until you are convinced it tells what you have on mind. Reflection gives us the opportunity to go to the roots and see if we did not get lost in the meanwhile.
I think reflective writing differs from the other types of writing in the way you have to think more about what you want to say, and you have to go deeper on what you think. I am going to do a lot of reflection in this course because it is hard to me to write in English and I have to read the text a lot of times to see if I say exactly what I wanted to. So each time I will going to write, I think I might reflect on what I am going to say. So I will reflect about the right punctuation, tone and audience I am going to have. In my opinion, reflective writing relates most with the “Outcome 2: Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing” because it includes reading of diverse texts, make a critical thinking about them and make some research about what you are going to write. In Sandra Giles paper called “Reflective Writing and The Revision Process: What Were You Thinking” tell us about the importance to keep in mind some questions you have to answer before you start writing and then when you finish, you have to read again those purposes and you compare if it is what you wanted to express when you answer those questions on the beginning. And it relates to the Outcome 2 where says that we have to read diverse texts so we can figure out what is the audience and situation. I think we learn how to write when we practice a lot and we let the words flow as we have them in our mind. We have to try things we want to learn, even though we think we are not good at them, but in my opinion is the only way we can learn. Because we are going to try, then someone can make us observations and give us feedback that can help us in our process.
My understanding of the "learning process" of writing come from my own experience of learning anything. If you really want to learn something, you have to get involved. It is time consuming and requires an effort. If we really want to have a good output, we have to take a really good input. For example, if I want to learn how to bake a chocolate cake from Youtube, I start from watching the video and making a list of ingredients I have to buy. Then I have to buy the exact ingredients of the video, because if not, the recipie is not going to taste as it should. Once I got the ingredients, I have to watch the video again and follow the steps. If I follow them carefully, I will be able to bake a cake with a similar taste. When you serve it to some friend, maybe he tell you that the batter still raw, so you make an investigation about how was it possible if you follow the exact steps, but then is when you realize that if you are in a higher altitude, you have to make some modifications on the amounts of the ingredients. I think the "learning process" is a process of try again and again until you get the desire results. Not only try what someone taught you, but include your own experiences in that process. That is when you finally learn something. |
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