I’m glad that we get to do a post on how our thoughts on writing have changed, because mine definitely have. To be honest, I was dreading GWRTC103. I thought it’d be the worst class because in middle school and high school writing always seemed to be a weak subject for me and I never got very good grades on my papers. But now I feel so much more confident when it comes to writing assignments. I’ll admit, I did used to dread them like the plague- but now I’m totally comfortable with them.

I think that this is because we started out with that rhetorical analysis project. This really allowed me to dig deep into someone’s paper and find the problems and the mistakes the author made in the paper. After that I was able to apply the things I learned from that analysis into the papers I wrote later in the semester.

Another thing that really helped me was the revision paper. That also taught me so much about writing because it forced me to find the problems in my paper, figure out why they were problems, and then revise them. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to do that.

So basically, this class has helped me so much more than I thought it would. I thought that it would just be a pain and that I would do terribly in it, but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes this semester. I see writing in a new light now. Instead of seeing it as a burden, I am kind of excited to write more papers so I can apply the things I have learned in GWRTC. At the end of my first blog I wrote “I am hoping to improve a lot [in my writing] in GWRTC this semester” and I feel like i really have. Thanks for a great semester!

So the first thing I thought was interesting about this page was its definition of revision as “to see again” and to rethink your paper/look at it from a fresh perspective. I never knew this before. When I think revision, I always think revising little things like spelling and punctuation. To “revise,” I always used to just skim over my paper and look for these little mistakes. Apparently, this is actually editing- not revision. I never knew that revision meant actually reconsidering your paper as a whole. Now when I revise, I will have a whole different view on the revision process and I think my papers will improve.I don’t think I actually ever did a full on revision paper before like we did in class. Revising my work in high school always seemed optional. I’m glad I got the opportunity to revise for gwrtc because I learned a lot from it. I never knew it is such a long process. This could get kind of aggravating, but I think it will help me with my writing.

I liked how this page said to revise from a hard copy. I definitely agree with this. When I try to edit or revise my work from the computer it strains my eyes and makes me tired so I usually just give up. I also liked how this page gave advice on what to do if you realize you no longer agree with your own point. This happens to me a lot, so I may even go back to this website next time I write a paper.

Basically this page was very helpful- it taught me a lot about revising and corrected my thoughts on revising that were actually wrong.

In my original piece, I had MAJOR wording problems. I’m pretty sure there was  “W” on every other sentence when I got the paper back. I re-read my paper and realized how awkwardly I worded some things. I’m so glad I got the chance to change it. The two other areas I am focusing on in my project are credibility and over generalizing and over simplifying. I made some big mistakes in these areas because I randomly stated a lot of facts without saying anything about where they came from so I didn’t sound like a very credible author in some parts. I also sounded ignorant at times because I generalized too much. I did not even realize I was doing this until I read it over again.

 I did most of my revision project already and I’m glad I got to fix my paper. I liked my topic and it was interesting to write about so I’m glad I got to improve my writing. I also learned so much from revising this and I’m definitely glad we got to do this- it’s definitely a good final project.

Another thing I liked about the narrative is how at the end, the author talks about how the problem with her breasts turned out okay in the end. It gives closure to the audience. I also liked her last paragraph, and how she kind of makes peace with the author of the narrative she was arguing against. She says that she can relate to Ephron’s statement and I think this is good because when you are arguing something it is important to try and relate to the other side of the argument as well. So overall, I thought this was a good narrative, however, I do not know how boys will feel about it…

For the most part, Udovitch’s narrative interested me. This topic has always been of interest to me because since I really do not understand eating disorders I want to know more about them and what is going on in the minds of these girls. The parts that interested me most were when Udovitch was interviewing the girls with the eating disorders and talked about their story and their lives. I think she should have done more of this in her narrative because some parts were kind of boring to me. I got pretty bored reading all the statistics and facts given by doctors or eating disorder experts. I mean some were OK because they strengthened Udovitch’s arguement but at one point I just felt like enough is enough. I like to read about the girls with the problem and their stories and what they go through personally because it helps me understand and relate more as an audience member, so the author should have included more of this.

My article is titled “OMG, I Crashed. FML.” It is written by a senior at JMU named John Scott. When I first started reading this article it sounded like it would be an arguement strongly against texting while driving and for laws banning this. But at the end of the second paragraph the author states that he is against the texting while driving ban signed by the governor of Virginia last spring. Once I finished the article I realized that it is basically about how texting while driving is bad, but there should not be laws against it because people should be able to know this danger for themselves and laws against this will not work. I was kind of confused the first time I read through this article because I did not understand what the author was arguing. It took me two times to understand it, but that could be because I am just tired.

This article does not seem exceptionally well written, however the writing is not terrible. I noticed how the author just jumps right into the arguement without reeling the audience in with pathos. However he does end up using pathos when he talks about how he may do some potentially dangeous things while he is driving. The topic was pretty interesting and I could definitely relate to it since I am a driver and I do love to text.

For the most part I think I am in agreement with what the author is arguing. I agree that although laws can be made to ban texting, that will not really stop anyone from doing it and could make matters worse when people try to text while driving and try to hide it, which as the author says, takes more effort.

          In elementary school, I mostly did creative writing. I wrote a lot of short stories, and I enjoyed this because I could be creative and there weren’t a lot of rules and guidelines. I liked this at the time however now I prefer writing assignments to have stricter guidelines because it makes writing easier for me.s

          In middle school I did some creative writing and some essays. We talked about the concept of   the thesis and did some small thesis papers, but nothing too advanced. High school was when I started writing a lot of thesis papers and getting more comfortable with the thesis. I remember one rule that I always go by for writing theses was to use although, nevertheless, and then because. I use “although” to show another side of my arguement, “nevertheless’ to show what I am arguing, and “because” to state why I am arguing. This “rule” really helped me with writing my thesis papers because it helped me make my thesis clear and organized. Although after freshman year in high school we were not required to use this format, I still use it to this day in all my opinion/thesis papers. Most of my papers in high school were also required to have the same format- an introduction paragraph, two or three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

            Overall, I feel like I have had a lot of practice with writing, especially with arguement/opinion and thesis papers. On the other hand, I have always had a tough time with writing and it is not my strongest subject, but I am hoping to improve a lot in WRTC 103 this semester.