Major Projects Reflection
Major Projects Reflection:
During the semester we have done three major writing projects each one relating to subjects used in connection to writing. The first project was on language and literacy, the second on genre, and the last was a mini ethnography on a culture of our choice. Each one of these projects generated ideas and allowing us to expand our knowledge of writing. We wrote from an analytical standpoint, an observational one, and were even allowed to turn our writing into art if we chose to. Writing these papers has allowed us to further our knowledge of writing and use this knowledge to better our own writing processes.
For each paper we were asked to write a rough draft to get our ideas down before we began putting our papers together. I felt that my ethnography draft was far better than the one I did for my literacy project. In my ethnography rough draft, I had some transitional issues and some punctuation errors, but I think I did pretty well on that draft. Once I managed to transition from one topic to another smoothly I quickly wrote my final draft and did pretty well on it. It seemed like every paragraph I would change topics in my culture, but it wouldn’t flow together, it just felt like I chopped it up into sections and that was it. I feel that for my papers in future classes that transitioning will be one of the things I need to work on in writing.
The rough draft for my literacy project was just that, rough, I chose to turn my project into a graphic novel. For my rough draft I had to outline what was going to happen in my graphic novel, but I wasn’t sure yet how to put it together. I wrote down roughly what I was gonna put into each panel, but it didn’t seem to tell you anything about it. It more or less was just me saying this will be in this panel or so and so will say this. It wasn’t very well put together and didn’t help to give an idea of what the final draft would be like. I also wasn’t sure how many panels I was going to have in it, or if the ideas I wrote down were even gonna make it into the graphic novel. All in all it I felt I could have done a better job of explaining what I was gonna have happen, but without the artwork I just couldn’t.
The paper I am most proud of is my genre analysis because I felt like I was able to take something I loved and turn it into a paper that would inform others about the genre. It was easier for me to write about this because I know the genre well and was able to explain the genre, while also giving background on it to those who may not know anything about it. In this paper I was able to analyze the genre in a way that made it readable to any audience, whether they are fan of the genre or not. It is by far my favorite of the three papers we have done because I was not only able to analyze a genre I love, but I was able to share it with whoever reads my paper.
The paper I felt I would like to revise if I had more time on it is the ethnography paper. Even though I did better on it than I did the genre analysis, I felt like there was more I could have written about if I had the time. Much of the feedback I received from my classmates was ideas on things I could have added to the paper. Perspectives from people in the culture that I missed or didn’t have the time to put in, or information about a particular aspect of the culture.
The papers for this class were very fun and interesting to write about and have made me think about the way in which I write. Most papers I have done are research papers that are pretty much research a topic and write about it. These papers made you think about different aspects and ways in which to write about a subject. I hope that writing these papers have allowed me to write better and further my knowledge of what writing is.
Theory of Writing
In ancient Greek civilization, there were many storytellers, who would pass down the history and mythology of their times. They told these stories to one another through oral communication, until one day someone came along and wrote these stories down. They were no longer just stories told aloud, they were written down and became a way in which people could transmit their history to all people, and save it forever. Without the use of writing these stories and the history of all other civilizations may have never been known. There would be no written record of the battles, and ideas created back then. If not for that person coming along and writing these stories out, they may have been lost or altered to the point where they no longer held any value.
Writing is not just putting words on a piece of paper, it is a vital part of human evolution, without which we may have never evolved to such a level as we are at today. Imagine going to school and learning, but never being able to see the words that accompany the lesson. If we didn’t have writing nothing would be accomplished such as mathematics, history, or any other educational tool. Writing allows us to remember the past, and build the future. If not for writing there wouldn’t be any textbooks to learn from, no equations to be able to solve, everyone would just communicate orally without any proof behind what they are saying. With writing we can see how ancient civilizations lived, we can solve complex math problems that lead to scientific breakthroughs. The purpose of writing things down is so that a person can not only hear but see what it is they are learning. It allows us to keep track of things we may never have known about without it. It lets us be creative and imagine worlds where there are heroes and villains, and worlds we may not necessarily want to live in, but dream about. Writing allows for us to grow as people, to build things, communicate over long distances, and to learn.
Many great authors have allowed for us to imagine great things, worlds with fantasy and comedy. They influence people to read and to write themselves, to be able to express themselves not only in words spoken aloud, but in the pages they write on. Writing is one of the most important things in human evolution. The world would be nothing without it, people would talk to one another, but their ideas would slowly drift away, never to be remembered. Writing allows us to build governments, without it we would not have the declaration of independence, or the constitution of the United States. We would not have remembered the great speeches of men such as Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King. Writing makes it possible to not only go forward, but to also remember and think back to the past. No one should ever stop writing, no matter how simple or complex what you write is, it will always be important to someone. That letter you write to a soldier you hardly know just to let him know someone is there, that diploma that has your name on it and gives you a sense of pride every time you see it. Without writing none of these things would be possible, that soldier would have no one to communicate with outside of his fellow men, without having your diploma you would feel as though you never really achieved anything. Being able to see things on paper or anywhere it can be written helps to make the world better.
Rough Draft of Literacy Project
This is a very rough draft of my literacy project, and an idea of what I may do, once I figure out how I will upload some of the artwork that goes along with it.
My Literacy project will be a graphic novel about when I learned about Percy Jackson, which drove me to wanting to learn as much as I could about Greek History and Mythology. It will start with many panels of artwork depicting me and what I thought about during this time.
This is a rough draft of what will be in each Panel.
Panel 1- this will feature me in the store picking up a copy of Percy Jackson the lightning thief and feature my thoughts.
Panel 2- Will be of me watching a part of the movie and becoming very interested in the what happens.
Panel 3- Will show me looking on researching the movie online and discovering that it is a book series
Panel 4- Will be of me going to the store and buying the books series
Panel 5-8- Will be of me reading the books and my thoughts throughout, which led to me wanting to learn more about the Greek gods.
Panel 9- Will be of me deciding to go to college and learn more about Greek history.
This is what I have so far I am still working out what else I can put into the panels and how best to arrange them.