Now, you are starting to look towards your portfolio. I am interested in how you find and make meaning among your compositions this term. You might think one particular composition represents this term, but you should attempt to read across assignments.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Blog 8: Intepretation
At this point, you have been engaged in interpretation as a rhetorical device. In other words, you have been finding and making meaning with words and visuals. You should have noticed that you have not been able to solely rely on the author's intention; your experiences that you bring to a text alter the meaning.
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Cody Cox
ReplyDeleteHow we interpret things can differ from ones experiences in life. Through the course of the year I first interpreted this class as being hard because through my experience I have always thought that English was hard ever sense elementary school. Maybe this was a self-fulfilling prophecy because at the begging this class was overwhelming (or at least for me) with the introduction of crots and the whole college experience. But as I experienced more in the class and with the help of other classmates this class became easier. Through all the compositions that were presented to the first was the hardest because it broke all the rules that have been taught to us through the years. When I first heard the word crot and explode the moment I first interpreted this as writing longer papers but to my utter dismay it was an explosion of details that can make one small insignificant detail its own short story. As I was writing this crot the first thought that I had was I couldn’t think this far out of the box what I think is out of the box is nothing compared to Ms. Mitchell’s definition. But as the weeks went by in the class I became more confident in the class and was able to think of better ideas and be more creative (if you knew me creative is not my middle name). I was able to make better and more detailed comments on my classmate’s papers, which at the begging I had no clue what to add. With the other journals and compositions I began to have some insight of what would sound better what my word chose should be and how to look for details that I knew I could better explain. I became a better writer and even a better reader (which I thought that I was a good reader before this class began). My experience in this class will only continue my growth as a reader and writer.
I believe in any class you get out what you put into it. So in that case I believe my work from beginning to end has hopefully shown maturity through my first four months, first semester of college life. I have grown as a person and even though my main focus is not writing I hope it has matured as well! Our first assignment of the year was my experiences with reading through crots. I really enjoyed this new, fun, different most exciting writing technique. I think I was able to pick it up easily. Then we evolved in our next assignment reading through music videos. I thought this was a good lesson to learn about myself. We all make opinions, judgments, and have thoughts on what the meaning of the lyrics, backgrounds, dance moves, etc. are portraying and this was a way of realizing my thoughts and putting them into words. I found our first two projects very reality friendly and I majorly enjoy the straightforward aspect of that. Now I am attempting to wrap up my portfolio in the sense that I am putting artistic creations to my words in hope that I can express my thoughts in more than one way. This way I will hopefully reach the visual and bookworm learners at the same time. I believe all our assignments have been progressive and in some ways combined in one big learning experience. I hope that I can present myself well and finish up with a great semester ending! I believe this class has been taught logically and interesting in a real life way.
ReplyDeleteJessi responding to Cody Cox
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning I definitely was overwhelmed as well when we read through the syllabus and talked about the three different compositions in one sitting. I could not grasp the thought of doing a whole portfolio, or writing about my view on reading because I do not consider myself a good reader from the traditional sense. I also was very afraid of the idea of creativity through writing. To tell you the truth I still am a little bit worried about Composition 3 and my way of presenting it. I feel so many other individuals are more artistic than I am. I have always believed I have a math and science braid and have trouble drawing a stick figure. In the theme of Thanksgiving I guess we can all be thankful for the opportunity or for the grade that we were pushed into the challenge of being creative. It will benefit us further whether in making a website, creating a collage, or being picaso!
Everyone views events differently because of their different past experiences. This term I found English to be more challenging than normal. Normally I can sit down and write 300 words with ease and let the words flow. But something about this year has caused many writers blocks for me. The compositions I used in my portfolio mean a lot to me this term because they’ve been influenced by my life changing a lot. I went from really depending on my parents for everything to on my own such as: paying my own bills, buying my own groceries, and choosing where I’m going to live. There was one composition in particular that I really enjoyed writing and that was Composition 1. Although at first it was hard to write, after I was able to describe who I was as a person the style of writing came easy. Once I got past that first writer’s block the words just flowed so much easier. I believe that my experience of moving to college helped me write that essay because when I had to leave my old friends behind and find new ones, I realized who I was as a person and who were my true friends. My true friends are the ones that don’t care how weird I can be or how random most of what I say is. Instead of giving me a weird look and ignoring what I say my friends make an inside joke between us out of it. So basically my essay was so easy to write because I’m normally a random person so writing a crot is a lot easier to write than an essay that has to answer specific questions.
ReplyDeleteChris Davis
ReplyDeleteI have learned so much in this class. At first, I was pretty hesitant about what was going on. I didn’t know any one; I didn’t know what was being assigned or how to write any of the papers. It was all pretty overwhelming. As the semester wore on though, I started to become more comfortable. I knew the people in the class, I understood was being discussed and assigned. The biggest obstacle for me was learning how to write a crot. That was a completely new idea to me that I was completely lost in at first. I had no idea what to do. People in the class helped me though, so did Ms. Mitchell and all of the various classroom discussions. All of the pieces were finally starting to fall into place. Comp two was very easy for me to write. It was something that I was interested in and it allowed me to be creative. When creativity is allowed to run its course and its something interesting, I am able to do much better work than if it is just something that I am assigned and have to grudgingly work my way through. Comp three was a definite challenge. I was writing in new ways that I had never written in before, but this time I had countless examples of what to do that really helped me out. All of the journals helped along the way too. They opened up a new way too look at the assignment or task and offer a way to go about writing it. Then with the feedback the my classmates post, also really helps to clarify any last minute things or questions that I may have. Overall, the things that we have done in this class have helped me to develop my writing skills that I will be able to take with me in the future.
A German philosopher Walter Benjamin “All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.” I think that this statement he says to be very true. I have never had problems with English classes even through the AP courses I took in high school up until this semester taking ENC 1101. And it’s not even because of the fact that I’m in college and struggling with all the new responsibilities, it is more of the fact that I haven’t ever had a course similar to this one. I think the hardest composition we have had to do was the first one because of the fact that this was many of our first real assignments we had assigned to us in college and it wasn’t like any other basic composition we have had. It broke all the traditional rules for English papers we have ever had. We weren’t supposed to set it up in paragraph form, they weren’t supposed to be coherent with each other, but were all supposed to come together to form one basic idea that we would use in our final portfolio at the end of this course. But this course has taught me that my writings don’t have to be set in any sort of specific writing styles. When writing the first composition I wrote like we all think. We have a bunch of random ideas and thoughts that come to mind, that are barely connected but by a slight hint. Also when I was writing the crots I used the technique we talked about in class called “exploding the moment” and was able to take readers into the scene. It was like in each crot I was telling a story to my best friend about something that had just happened, when I was really getting the reader to understand how I was shaped to be the reader and writer I am today. This again was all based around my own interpretations.
ReplyDeleteChris Davis responding to Cody Cox
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that you are saying. Coming into this class was a whole new experience for me and I think that we didn’t know what we were doing when we started. Like you said, she Ms. Mitchell told us about crots and exploding the moment, I had no idea what she was talking about. Then after talking things out, it finally made sense. I definitely agree that was time went on, I got a better grip on the class and things did help throughout the year, such and the discussions and blogs. They helped to put things into perspective.
Chris Davis responding to Jackie Randolph
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying. I agree that this has definitely been my hardest English course too because I have never had any other course like it. Before, it was all read a book, analyze it, and then write about it. Here, it’s just write as you see fit. As you said, we write what we think. All of our writing became pretty random. None of the thoughts flowed because there were no more transitions. They were all random thoughts strewn together. All of the stuff we did though, did help me to become a better writer.
In Response to Cody Cox
ReplyDeleteI had the same struggles as you did coming into this class. I had a hard time adjusting to not writing the typical essays that we have been used to in our past 12 years of education. And like you once I understood the idea of crots and got the hang of writing them, I found them very helpful and sort of fun! I thought the idea of us using one of our crots from the first composition and basing our entire third composition and using our “exploding” idea to turn one crot into three different genres on different topics.
Cody Cox responding to Jessi
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you the amount of effort you put into either studying or understanding the material the easier the class will be for you. I know for a fact that you have more artistic ability in your non writing hand than I do in my entire body I can't even make my stick figure look like a stick figure. I didn't consider myself a good writer but a very good reader (if that’s possible these two things usually coincide with one another). My strength has always been in science classes I don't know why but these classes have always been easy for me (at least that was the case thorough high school) My senior year I had 4 science classes and I had no trouble maintaining a good grade in any of these classes with little to now effort. That is why I am pursuing a medical degree that’s why.
Cody Cox responding to Chris Davis
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. In an unfamiliar setting with people that you don't know are trying to listen and pay attention to a teacher who is sitting in the middle of the room talking about things that we couldn't have came close to understanding that early in the morning was first very hard and overwhelming like I said in my earlier response. But as the year went by and i started to know the people in the class and seeing how I wasn't the only one who was struggling at the beginning I was able to learn from these experiences and bring them together to the final result of the portfolio
Daniel Mele
ReplyDeleteI personally like to believe that when an author is writing on a subject they are not always trying to have a deep meaning in their word choice or use of pictures because sometimes interpretation can be completely off. It is frustrating to me when people use their own experiences to relate to a topic that an author creates because it may not be similar and this can lead to drastically different ideas from the same thing which can cause huge problems. So I myself do not try to use words or pictures that can have multiple meanings because when i say something i mean it there is usually no fluffy words that can mean something completely different unless I am making fun of someone who is either in the same room or reading what I am writing. I normally hate when there are class discussions about the authors "meaning" or "reason" behind their choices of words because i will purposefully say something that sounds no where near the truth but what i say normally cant be refuted easily because its opinionated and just further proves my point that we should not read too much into authors word choices. But on the other hand if an author says that he made specific choices to mean something else then its OK to go back and look for them but its not OK to go back and put your own opinion onto their choices because thats ruining the original work in my honest opinion. So overall I try to write what I mean so there would not be too much controversy over my writing but there always will be because some people always believe there are hidden meaning or rhetorical purposes for everything.
Meghan Hemstreet
ReplyDeleteTaking this class has definitely challenged me as a writer. Coming into ENC 1101 at the beginning of the semester, I was unsure of what to expect. Fresh out of high school, I was still accustomed to writing traditional, repetitively patterned papers. Never had I incorporated such creative twists in an English course. Starting off, I was overwhelmed by the introduction of the new writing styles and their subsequent assignments. When it came to writing the first composition, I was hesitant. Do I understand the concept correctly? How do I begin the paper? These questions ran through my mind as I attempted to make sense of the assignment. I had never heard of a crot, let alone written one. While expressing my thoughts, it was hard to do so without formatting them in a typical manner. It was difficult to escape the habit of writing paragraph by paragraph, in chronological order, without having the encouraged use of fragments and spontaneity throwing me for a loop. Because of this, it took some time to adjust my way of writing. I had to get past my usual essay routine and explore myself as a writer to get to this next step.
As the semester continued on, however, I became more confident as a writer. It grew easier for me to think outside of the box. Between correcting multiple versions of my own papers, as well as those of my peers, I grew to have a better understanding of what was expected of myself, as well as the class. In-class writings, class discussions, and assigned prompts from the book helped tie it all together. Overall, I have learned a lot about myself as a writer this semester. I am now more willing to explore and utilize different forms of writing because of this.
Meghan Hemstreet responding to Kelly Lewis:
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said. English was definitely more challenging for me this semester. As did you, I experienced writer’s block quite frequently. It was hard for me to get my thoughts flowing in the beginning. Once I did, however, the writing became easier. The trouble I initially had conveying my thoughts onto paper eased up. Composition 1 was unlike any other form of writing that I had previously completed. It felt strange incorporating fragments and switching from thought to thought as I wrote. It helped sum up my interpretation of reading, and guided me in composing my third project.
Overall, I think I've grown through my compositions this semester. I remember reading the directions for the first composition, the body biography, in the syllabus and being completely bewildered. It looked difficult for several reasons, including the unfamiliar “crot” writing, and the general reflective nature of the composition. While it was difficult to get started, I eventually got the hang of it and did, in my opinion, a pretty good job. Looking back at the composition one drafts now, it's almost painful to see how misguided and lost I was in the beginning, around draft one and two.
ReplyDeleteComposition two was a bit easier, as I had already had a taste of ENC1101 during composition one. In this composition, I examined the focal audience and also the role of visual rhetoric in a music video. I think during this composition I was stuck in a plateau skills-wise. I had just learned a lot from composition one, and I only needed a few more skills to complete this assignment. Composition two was challenging and interesting, but I don't think it taught me as much as compositions one and three.
Composition three was the longest and most time-consuming assignment of the semester. Therefore, I spent tons of time drafting, reading, and revising my own work. It also required me to look back at composition two, because I had to cater composition three to specific audiences. It was in this assignment that I realized the value of reading your audience and writing for them, in a genre they can best understand or relate to.
Aaron responding to Chris
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we made similar progress in this
course. I too had a lot of trouble with composition one because of the unfamiliarity of the genre and also the “reflective” subject matter. I usually don't enjoy and don't excel at writing about myself. I think a lot of people are like this, as I vaguely remember a class discussion about it. I wish I could say the same about composition two. I found it sort of boring and it seemed to drag on forever. But I guess that validates your point, as I'm not passionate about the subject (music) so it was hard to stay interested.