Yesterday was our last day of class and our professor, Kevin, asked us what our favorite day was of his class. There were a lot of the same answers. Some of them included “The Copia day when we had to rewrite one sentence as many different times as we could changing it.” Some other answers were “not any specific day, but the questions of the day in the beginning of the class.” One other answer was “how we were all connected and really got to know each other.”

For myself, I really enjoyed the peer editing. I thought it was super helpful to have another set of eyes looking at a paper and change what they think needs to be. One of the days in class we had to take one of our paragraphs we wanted to revise and edit. We had another one of our classmates take the paragraph and have them rewrite the paragraph two or three times. This was helpful to me because it’s taking our own writing and having them change it into something we couldn’t. Another thing I liked about the class was how connected our class was. There were many different types of questions asked that led us to a different conversation to understand other people in the class. We talked about revising and editing, but we also got close and got to know more about one another. There were no filters in the class and Kevin allowed us to actually be ourselves and express whatever we wanted to without being judged. None of my other classes are like that. I think having a close relationship with the classmates and the professor allow the class to do better.

At the end of the discussion Kevin responded to our answers and said he enjoyed the class because he thinks it’s interesting to see our process and our thinking of revising and editing. Someone else said they like how he has us revise one paper the whole semester a bunch of times. It shows us how our process is of revising and editing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class because of our contentedness and how Kevin ran the class.

 

When I grow up, I want to be like my grandma. I call her Mama-Sue and she is my mom’s mom. I want to be like her because she has done everything for me since I was born and not only for me, but for our family and even my friends. It was just my dad and I since I was two years old and she let me spend the night at her house whenever I needed to, would pick me up for school, drop me off, make me lunches, give me money, and much more. Not only does she do things for me, but for our family too. She always is thinking of everyone else. She watches all my little cousins when they are not in school. She babysits them when their parents want to go out for the night. She has also helped me with my homework, even during college.

Another reason I want to be like her is because she is one of the reasons, I want to be a teacher when I get older. She always used to talk about how much she loves the students she teaches and how she made a difference in some of their lives. She used to do this thing every morning (she was on duty for the main entrance) she would count how many students gave her a hug. It was so common that students used to rush to her to see what number they were, and it even got to when the students were rushing to be her number one hug of the day. She still has her past students say, “are you Mrs. Lincoln?” She was a third-grade teacher, so for them to remember her that many years later amazes me.

Another reason I want to be like my grandma is because she always can have a good time. She doesn’t drink or do anything like that, but she does gamble. Sometimes she drags me to the casino and I’m the one that has to tell her it’s time to leave because it’s so late and I’m tired. She could spend the entire night there.

She’s always been there for me, even if it’s a letter, a phone call to make sure I’m doing ok at school. When I go home for Christmas break, we will drink tea and watch Hallmark Christmas movies.

The other day in class, Kevin asked us “0-10 how ready are you from the end of the semester?” I answered at a 10 because I want the semester to be over with, but I answered a 3 because work wise, I was just not prepared for finals, final paper, and still the other work we have to do before finals even start.

I was out the week before fall break because I was discovering I was having anxiety attacks for the first time ever. I had never experienced anxiety like that before. I was having a lot of anxiety attacks over the span of a couple weeks. I was feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of school work I had to do and on top of that I had placement once a week. I’m supposed to graduate in the Spring, which I still plan on doing but I think that was catching up with me too. I had extensions on all my homework and I think that was making it worse because I wouldn’t do the work when it was due, so it was piling up and making me feel even more behind. I’m also a procrastinator which doesn’t help because I would rather be doing other things with my friends when they don’t have work to do and then I would wait until the last minute to do assignments that I didn’t have extensions on. I felt like I didn’t have time to do anything other than go to class, placement, or do homework. So I would skip class to sleep or catch up on homework that I should have done before.

However, I’m much better now and can actually sit down and do homework without feeling overwhelmed. I am feeling way more prepared to for the end of the semester. I am all caught up with my work and feel like I am ahead of the game for once. There is still a lot of work I have to do before the end of the semester, but not as much and not as hard as I anticipated it would be.

I’ve noticed that instead of getting worked up about something that seems hard, I need to start looking ahead at assignments that are due to ensure that no assignment is really that bad. I am feeling much better about the end of semester and am ready for Christmas vacation and having a break!

My favorite holiday movie is really any cheesy, corny Netflix movie. But if I had to pick one holiday movie, it would be A Christmas Kiss. This movie stars Elisabeth Röhm, Laura Breckenridge, and Brendan Fehr. This movie is written by Joany Kane and directed by John Stimpson. This is a romantic Christmas movie. A Christmas Kiss is about an interior designer that encounters a kiss with a stranger in an elevator. Her friends dress her up to go out for the night, so she doesn’t really look anything like herself. After she kisses the stranger, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She told her friends about him and they suggested she go and try to find him. She doesn’t. Wendy (the interior designer) has a job working for Priscilla. Priscilla thinks Wendy is there at her beckon call and calls her at all hours of the night. Long story short, Wendy goes to her house for some things she has to do and meets Adam (the stranger from the elevator). Adman is Priscillas boyfriend. Adam doesn’t even recognize Wendy without all the make up on. Priscilla hires Wendy to decorate for the holiday party but steals all of Wendy’s ideas and tells Adam first to make her seem more perfect. Priscilla ends up having to leave to take care of some things outside of the town and that’s when Adam and Wendy must decorate Priscillas house for the holiday party. When Priscilla comes home, Wendy and Adam are sleeping on the couch together. They were previously eating food and watching movies but ended up falling asleep. Needless to say, Priscilla fires Wendy. They all end up at the Nutcracker performance where Wendy says, “you two deserve each other,” because Adam didn’t realize she was the stranger from the elevator. She storms off and he runs after her catching her before the elevator goes down and they kiss again.

I love this movie because it’s exactly what I said before as it’s cheesy and corny. But I love romance movies and Christmas is my favorite time of year.

In class today, we discussed biggest pet peeves in grammar and also what the dumbest grammar rules are. When it was my turn, I had said when people misuse too and to, their, they’re, and there, and you and you’re. Many others in my class had previously said that or agreed with others. This is my biggest pet peeve because we were literally taught this when we were in elementary school and I don’t believe it’s that hard to remember. There are other rules in the English language that are harder to remember and are more complicated.

There were others that people discussed too, all in which I agreed with. For example, someone said that the dumbest rule in the English language is that we can’t say “me and Alexa,” when speaking about them going to do something, we have to say “Alexa and I.” Our professor said that’s his biggest pet peeve and when people don’t say themselves last. However, he agreed with her reasoning on why it’s the dumbest rule. She said because everyone gets the point when she says herself first, which is true. To go off that, another person discussed their biggest pet peeve is when you ask someone to take a picture and you CAN say “can you take a picture of me and Alexa?” Then they try to correct you and say, “Alexa and I,” but this time you’re right when saying “me and Alexa.” It’s very confusing.

A little bit into class, my professor asked which is correct “I had eggs, toast, and bacon for breakfast,” or “I had eggs, toast and bacon for breakfast.” Most of the people in the class raised their hand that there needed to be a comma before and. My professor, then, brought up serial commas and they had for and against the comma before and. He answered the question by saying it’s up to us, but we need to be consistent when doing so. So if you are a serial comma user, that’s fine, but in the writing it has to be consistent throughout the piece of writing.

Dr. Gideon Burton, from Brigham Young University discusses “A Guide to Copia.” “Exercise in expressing oneself in different ways will be of considerable importance in general for the acquisition of style. Variety is so powerful in every sphere that there is absolutely nothing, however brilliant, which is not dimmed if not commended by variety. Boredom can easily be avoided by someone who has it at his fingertips to turn one idea into more shapes than Proteus himself is supposed to have turned into, (Burton).

In the reading, Burton tells the readers about a short guide to Copia. One column says, “possible changes.” Underneath, adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs and statements are listed. Next to it, there is a kind of variation column. In this column, some of the variations that are listed are questions, negative, synonyms, metaphors, etc. On the other side of the guide there is original content which breaks down the sentences into each separate word. The next column over gives different variations of what it could change in to. After he gives the short guide, he gives a sentence “your letter pleased me greatly.” He shared over 80 different ways in which he could say the sentence differently, but with the same meaning.

In class today, our question of the day was what is your normal greeting when seeing somebody? We came up with many different ways such as hello, hey, what’s up, hi, and others. The point our professor was trying to make was that there are many different ways to say the same thing. For example, we did our own sentence. Mine was “I enjoy playing with my dog.” In ten minutes, I came up with fifteen different ways that meant the same thing. Then after that, we traded sentences with a partner and tried to come up with different ways to say their sentence too.

In class we discussed what everyone’s favorite instrument was. These answers ranged from piano, to violin, to even singing. Some people chose a favorite instrument because their parents enjoy it or played it. Some people chose a favorite instrument because they used to play in it school. For myself, I chose guitar. I chose guitar because my dad is learning how to play the guitar right now. He has an electric and an acoustic. He tries to play the acoustic one more, but wanted to get an electric because of Nirvana. Nirvana inspired him to want to learn to play the guitar. I think it’s neat that my dad picked up a new thing for him to do with his spare time. We listen to Nirvana and went to a cover band concert and I fell in love with the guitar even more. I used to play the clarinet in intermediate school, but something wasn’t right, and I didn’t enjoy playing it. I never wanted to practice in school, let alone when I went home for homework.

Somebody in class mentioned how their favorite instrument was the voice. I think that’s interesting because I never thought of a voice being an instrument, but it definitely is. Singing is the vocal production of musical tones. “The human voice can be thought of as the ultimate melodic instrument, because it is capable of instant expression with no instrument required to translate thoughts and feelings into sound,” (Learn to Play Music). This quote really hit because I love listening to music, it’s my stress reliver. When the article said, “translate thoughts and feelings into sound,” I understood why the voice is a musical instrument. There are many various sounds used in different styles of singing. These sounds can include slides, dips, and growls. In music, instruments imitate the human voice because of its pure expression and feeling.

After reading Murray’s: Making Meaning Clear, I have figured out that most writers don’t know their meaning after their first draft. They must revise it over and over again to get the meaning of what they’re writing. Revision is the most satisfying part of writing because it allows the writer to understand their piece more clearly. The teacher can only give the student guidelines and then it’s the student that determines what their writing means. Murray gives principles on how this can be done better, and they include building on strength, cut what can be cut, simplicity is best, and the writing will tell you how to write. Build on strength means the writer is searching the text for the meaning. They do this by looking for how the writing is being developed how they can make it work better. When people revise their work, they should be looking for how their piece can be better and extending the strength of their work, rather than making corrections on it. Cut what can be cut means the piece a writer is working on has one purpose. If you aren’t focused on that purpose, cut that out. What Murray means by simplicity is best is writing has clear and simple as you can. It can still have a complex message, but it needs to be clear and to the point. Lastly, the writing will tell you how to write means discovering the voice that comes from that particular piece you are working on. Do not compare this piece to past pieces you have written.

A good piece of writing, I believe, says only one thing. Or to put it in a different way, the many things that are said in a piece of writing all add up to a single meaning,” (Murray, 36). Murray also says you should reread your piece as many times as you need to. There is no certain amount of times you must read it, however, as long as you find focus, form and voice. Focus is reading your piece as fast as you can, as if you are the reader. As you read you are supposed to ask yourself questions such as what does this piece of writing mean, is new information needed, and are all the readers questions answered? Form is reading the piece again, but slower. This time the writer should read their piece in different sections of meaning, rather than looking at the whole piece. This time you should ask yourself questions such as is the title on target, how can I get out of the way of the reader and show not tell, and does the lead catch the reader in three seconds or less? Finally, voice. This is when the writer reads their piece slowly- line by line. The meaning becomes clearer. This is when the writer should ask questions like can the piece be read aloud, does each paragraph make one point, and has the right word been found?

For me, writing is as busy as a bee. From experience this can happen during a free writing process- I took Writing Fiction my first semester at Cortland. This can also happen when you are trying to write a paper for a class.

I got a book from my family back before I came to Cortland last year. It gave writing prompts and questions for me to answer. I don’t find time to do that on top of the writing intensive courses I am taking this semester. When a professor asks me to write a paper, I always think I can do it the night before and get through it quick. Usually that’s not the case- especially if you want a good grade on the writing assignment. I’ve turned in papers to professors that I’ve thought were A papers. I’ve had tutors help me with them. I’ve had people revise and edit them, still to have the professor find things that could have been better. I expected that however, it proves my point that there are always things that can be changed.

The other point as to why writing is so busy is because writing is honestly never completed. I’ve heard many professors and even becoming authors say they can always change their writing to make it better. Even when you are done writing whatever it is you are writing, and you re-read it, you most likely find a few errors or change things to make it sound better. When revising and editing a paper, it’s busy. There are always things you are changing. Some examples are using different words, coming up with transition sentences, not having run-on sentences, and making sure you aren’t making an grammatical errors.

I’ve also noticed it takes you longer to write a paper about something you don’t enjoy talking about. For example, a research paper. If you are in a class you don’t necessarily care for, it’s harder and keeps you busier. For myself, that’s history. I took a Western Civilization class at my community college and it took me forever to write a research paper. I was busy researching for it, reading books on it, and trying to understand what I was even trying to write about. But if you are writing something you really do care about, you are just as busy because you want to make sure it is the perfect piece.

Cindy Crawford once said, “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford.” This quote stuck out to me in this Killing Us Softly 4 speech. Reading the quote you can literally tell what it means: Cindy Crawford doesn’t look like herself in the pictures that are in the magazines or advertisements. Jean Kilbourne has discussed women issues with advertisements four different times, and she says it’s only getting worse. There are 250-billion-dollar industry, over 3,000 ads every single day we are exposed to, and we will spend two years watching T.V commercials. Ads are on T.V, on billboards, in offices, schools, and much more. Females are portrayed to be perfect and nothing less when being on ads. Kilbourne is discussing in Killing Us Softly 4 that us as females are looking at these ads and losing self-esteem. The women in magazines have no lines, blemishes, freckles, scares, or pours. Females believe they must put time, effort, money to be beautiful and that if we fail to do so we are ugly and feel guilty because we are not perfect.

This is my new paragraph I took from last fall. This was my introduction paragraph for a paper on females in AD’s. With in the revising and editing, I look out unnecessary words that made it seem like I was rambling on. There were a few facts I had added in there which did not need to be, therefore I took them out. I had a couple grammar errors I needed to change. I also moved around some of the facts so it went more and order and wasn’t all over the place.